Sisi Stresses to Macron Egypt’s Commitment to succeed in Legal Binding Agreement on GERD

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi reiterated on Tuesday his country’s determination to preserve its water rights, stressing that it’ll not allow its interests to be violated.

Cairo is decided to succeed in a “legal” and “fair” agreement over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), he stated during a gathering with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

Sisi was within the Paris to participate, together with African leaders and chiefs of worldwide financial institutions, in twin summit meetings which will seek to assist Sudan into a replacement democratic era and supply Africa with critical financing caught in a frenzy by the Covid-19 pandemic.

During his bilateral meetings, Sisi said he was keen to deal with the dispute with Addis Ababa over the GERD.

According to presidential spokesman Bassam Rady, Sisi highlighted Egypt’s keenness to consolidate and deepen the extended strategic partnership with France, as an “important pillar to preserve security and stability within the Middle East region.”

The president said he looks forward to maximise bilateral coordination and consultations on various regional issues, also as security and military cooperation, in light of the good regional challenges, Rady added.

Sisi also met with head of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, during which they agreed on the utmost importance of the water issue and thought of GERD “a matter of national security.”

Addis Ababa has been building the dam on the most tributary of the Nile since 2011, and its Ministry of Water, Irrigation, and Energy announced the completion of about 78 percent of the development thus far .

It announced in 2020 that it had completed the primary phase of filling the dam, achieving its target of 4.9 billion cubic meters, which allowed the testing of the primary two turbines of the dam. This year, it’s targeting filling a further 13.5 billion cubic meters.

The dam is predicted to become the most important hydroelectric power plant in Africa, with an expected capacity of 6,500 megawatts, to satisfy the requirements of Ethiopia’s 110 million people.

The two downstream countries, Sudan and Egypt, however, enforce reaching a legally binding agreement that preserves their water rights and averts further tensions and instability within the region.