Ethiopia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Ato Gedu Andargachew, held talks with Mohamed Taha Tawakul of the Al-Jazeera office in Ethiopia and they discussed a range of matters especially revolving around Ethiopia’s diplomatic discourse in the region and international arena and other related aspects. With due most credit to Aljazeera, The Ethiopian Herald presents the full interview as follows:
Al-Jazeera: My first question is about the propaganda war between Ethiopia and Egypt, in which Egypt accuses Ethiopia of complaining to the UN Security Council by undermining regional and international security. What is your comment on this issue?
Ato Gedu: It is known that Ethiopia and Egypt do not have a common border, but the Nile River unites them, and the main objective of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is to provide our societies who have led lives in darkness without electricity and improve their way of living.
It must be clear that Ethiopia has no any intention of harming others, it has repeatedly spoken about the Nile River that it can help come out of poverty. It has also been clearly uttered that Ethiopia does have the right to benefit from its water share, and so do Egyptians and the Sudanese.
Let me speak honestly, if Egypt considers us like brothers, it has to support Ethiopia and stand with us to eradicate hunger and poverty via obtaining electricity instead of putting obstacles at every knock and cranny of our steps towards achieving our national goal—stamping out poverty for good.
We were not surprised that the complaint was submitted to the UN Security Council. However, the sentiment to enjoy double standard is a fatal mistake: pursuing negotiations with Ethiopia and Sudan and taking part in regional, continental and international forums on the one hand and taking the case to the UN Security Council on the other. This is clearly devised to escape from internal chaos and used as attention diversion mechanism. Interestingly, the complaint has no effect, because we have the documents and evidences that refute the Egyptian allegations. And Ethiopians are always ready to promote the win-win approach in order to promote fair benefit from the water resources, and our confrontation is with the idea of the government of Egypt, not with Egyptians.
The filling of the dam, which will take place next month, is an agreed and signed stage in advance in 2015 for the first filling, at the level of the Heads of three countries, Prime Minister Haile Mariam Dessalegn, Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, and the mobilization to start filling the Dam is in accordance with the Declaration of Principles agreement.
Al-Jazeera: In light of Ethiopia’s insistence onto filling the reservoir without agreement, and Egypt’s refusal … What is the solution?
Ato Gedu: Of course, we have made our doors open to negotiation, but we are negotiating with a party that does not want to agree at all. Since Egypt does not have the desire to reach an agreement, we have not yet agreed. They are not ready to negotiate creating superficial and lame reasons. For example, they agree today and they will act otherwise tomorrow. They have done such a hide and seek game recurrently. The fact behind is that they do not want us to benefit from the production of electricity. This is the main source of the dispute. Egyptians would like to get Ethiopians impoverished and remain poor producing false fabrications and pretending that they will be seriously harmed if Ethiopia effectively employs the Nile water and grow well. This is a mere egoistic gesture and emanates from not knowing who Ethiopians are. Honestly, Ethiopia doesn’t have any intention to impose harm on neighboring countries, it always strives to take advantage of its natural and legitimate right on the Nile waters without harming others.
Al-Jazeera: Some groups are heard of saying that the Renaissance Dam will potentially cause water-war, what is the validity of this forecast?
Ato Gedu: The Egyptian media frequently talk about war, but not all options are practical and feasible. What we have seen on our part as the best and only option is the Nile River can be used in a fair, just and equitable manner. However, other options reported by Egypt lead to the pretty wrong way. ‘Peace first’ is our primary slogan. When we maintain peace and security, development can be achieved at an accelerated rate; so we value the peace very well.
The Egyptian government is the one that does not want our peace and development, instead they want us remain in darkness and hunger all the time. The very thing that needs to be taken into account is that we have the full right to take advantage of our water resources and our stance is quite clear. If there is a force that wants to prevent us from this right, we believe that our interest should not be achieved through military confrontations, rather through dialogue and cooperation.
Al-Jazeera: Are you not worried about the repercussions of the dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt on Arabs and African relations?
Ato Gedu: Africa and the Arabs have historical, geographical, cultural and social ties that cannot be breached, and politically they formed one bloc to defend their interests. There was mutual support for development and peace and what unites them, the synergy is much tougher than what separates them. This strong relationship cannot be affected by the differences between Ethiopia and Egypt rather the Renaissance Dam could be a bond for development and peace. It can help Egypt and Ethiopia bridge differences and make efforts to promote mutual cooperation.
We believe that Ethiopia has firm relations with the Arabs, we are influenced and affected by the Arabs and Ethiopia is a bridge between the Arabs and Africa, so due to this historical relationship, Ethiopia does not believe that it will be affected by disputes taking place here and there. The relations are stronger and supreme and we advise not to involve Africans and Arabs in conflicts of interests between countries that will have negative impact in the African and Arab relations. We reject any attempt to politicize the Renaissance Dam and give it an Arab or African dimension.
Al-Jazeera: What is the solution to the problem of sharing the Nile waters, in light of Egypt’s adherence to the agreement of 1929 and 1959, and Ethiopia adhering to a new and fair agreement … between the Nile Basin countries?
Ato Gedu: Ethiopia did not sign an agreement with Egypt. The Nile River is located in Ethiopia and we don’t have benefited from it so far. But because it is a regional river, we preferred to take the path of consensus, agreement and understanding between us and it is an agreement to announce the principles, but Egypt started to renounce it. We are not bound by agreement signed in 1929 and 1959 because we were not part of it, while Egypt pushes us to comply with this agreement. Interestingly, there is an agreement reached among countries of the Nile Basin which was opposed only by Egypt. When we announced that we would benefit from the Nile, we did not ask for water from the Aswan High Dam, or inside Sudan, but we said that we want to take advantage of the water that originates from our soil. We are not obligated to the agreements of the last century that Egypt signed with Britain.
We have called for changing this concept, which is not in line with the new reality, but Egypt adheres to the old agreements.
Al-Jazeera: There are bodies who accuse Ethiopia of adhering to the mobilization of the dam to escape from the internal entitlements related to the elections and the power struggle in your country. How do you respond?
Ato Gedu: This is also one of the things that the Egyptian government should not be intervening with, and this is a mistake. Filling the Dam is a phased procedure that we do within the timeframe of the GERD project.
Our internal political problems cannot be solved through the Renaissance Dam, and there are other ways through which we can solve our political problems, and we do not blame external parties as the Egyptian government does, and we do not use Egypt as a source of intimidation, and the Ethiopian media did not say that at all unlike the Egyptian media that fabricates lies to promote classifications, divisions and differences among the Ethiopian people. Ethiopians are united today more than ever before. We stand as one body in building the dam.
Al-Jazeera: In spite of the Egyptian and American refusal and the Sudanese reservation … Will you continue to fill the dam next month?
Ato Gedu: The role of the observers is limited to monitoring the negotiations, not affecting the course, and what the European Union, the United States, South Africa and the World Bank are doing is the correct procedure to monitor the tripartite negotiations, and the filling of the Renaissance Dam will take place at the right time.
On our part, the United States is a major country and there are many areas of cooperation between us. The World Bank also has a role in supporting development projects in Ethiopia. These relations are not affected by the positions of the United States and the World Bank in recent dam
negotiations, and they had fears and desire in the success of the negotiations, we did not have any reservations about their participation in the negotiations, but the objection we have is to align with one side and put pressure on the other during the negotiations.
In recent statements, this does not befit their status and does not help achieve balanced results from the negotiations. A country like the United States when it presses a certain side during the negotiations may negatively affect the negotiations and it is better that they do not issue such statements.
Al-Jazeera: What is the truth of your accusations against the Egyptian side of interfering in the internal affairs of Ethiopia, threatening Ethiopia’s security with its support for the opposition and diplomatic and media incitement, do you have any evidence?
Ato Gedu: Cairo always seeks to exploit the differences within Ethiopia and interfere in our internal affairs. It always opens doors for anyone who opposes the Ethiopian government, and provides them with direct and indirect support. The Egyptian government’s agenda is destabilizing Ethiopia. These things are documented by us and by those who were supporting them yesterday and who later became our partners. There is nothing they did not do either directly or through their agents. When we disagree with our neighbors they add fuel to fire and make differences widen. Cairo provides our enemies with moral and material support and facilitates media platforms. Despite all this, we have never dealt with Egypt in the same way it has done. We always treat them with discipline and diplomatic behavior, and no regime in Ethiopia has ever entered the Egyptian internal affairs and our relations with the Egyptian people are historical and external relations and will remain and that the spread of hatred carried out by the Egyptian government does not serve in the best interest of the relationship between the two peoples that existed since the dawn of history, our hand remains extended to Egypt.
Al-Jazeera: Recently, the language of dialogue and mutual trust seems to have been over and heading to open options, so, what do you comment on this?
Ato Gedu: The Egyptians say they are avoiding open options, even in light of the negotiations, and last year in 2019, they said the same thing in all their statements, and the Sudanese Minister of Irrigation suggested that we refer these differences to the heads of ministries, but negotiations are still ongoing, in light of all of this the Egyptians say they will take all measures. On the other hand, they sent the letter to the Security Council, and on the third hand, they confirm that they still wish to negotiate, and this indicates the extent of the confusion and it is difficult to deal with the Egyptian government as it always runs double standard.
Al-Jazeera: Many news spread about Egyptian military bases in southern Sudan, Eritrea and some Somali regions, even though these countries deny the existence of bases. What is the reality on the ground in this regard?
Ato Gedu: We have heard a lot that Egypt is conducting research to establish bases in some neighboring countries. For the Egyptian government, this goal is to establish bases and threat to our security. We do not exclude it. We affirm that the neighborhood of Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, South Sudan and Somalia are intimate relations that have moved from cooperation to integration, and we consider it impossible for the neighboring countries to agree with Egypt to establish military bases on their lands that harm Ethiopia, especially at this time. Obviously, there are those who do not follow developments in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia has whistled with conflicts, so we do not believe that there is a country in the neighborhood, cooperating with Egypt to harm Ethiopia by virtue of the relations that bind us and our positions with them.
Al-Jazeera: It is always reported in the media that the dam is a political project and funded from abroad, and the name of Israel is always present, to besiege Egypt. How do you respond?
Ato Gedu: There are attempts to link the Renaissance Dam to Israel and sometimes to America, and that Ethiopia is just a front. This information is heard and we are surprised by it. The Israelis were really supporting Ethiopia, because the Israelis are the loved ones of the Egyptian government, and they can ask them to stop this support, if it is real, and linking the Renaissance Dam to Israel is not only a lie but unfair talk, unfounded allegation simply to spoil our relationship with Israel. As it is old, historical and time-tested, it has nothing to do with the GERD.
Al-Jazeera: Would you tell us about your border dispute with Sudan and the solutions devised?
Ato Gedu: With regard to the border dispute with Sudan, we work together with the government to find lasting solutions to it. There are problems that have accounted more than hundred years and most of the skirmishes are in the farming season, and given the excellent relations between the two governments, they were contained by finding temporary solutions to them.
The problem that occurred recently in the harvest season is a recurring problem, but why was it exaggerated? This raises questions behind the motives. In our estimation, the event was given many and great dimensions, especially from the Egyptian media machine, to create a clash and confrontations between Ethiopia and Sudan. They made a maximum effort to push the two countries into military confrontations. The second thing is that Sudan is in a transitional stage and they are seeking to thwart this stage by igniting Sudan into confrontations, so that it does not devote itself to the priorities of the transitional phase. Sudan’s strong and united dream is not realized if that is so. There was organized work to implicate the region in war but we managed to contain it. Ethiopia is keen to Sudan’s development and transition. If they (Egyptians) were careful about Sudan, why did they not return the lands they took by force in Halayb and others and annexed them to Egyptian lands? We recognize that there are disputed areas in Sudan and we are looking for a just solution, unlike Cairo, which seized and annexed the lands. The facts are known by the people of Sudan. The differences between Ethiopia and Sudan are limited and minor disputes, most of which are between farmers, and we seek to make them an integrative area, not conflict areas. It is natural.
The Ethiopian Herald June 28, 2020
TRANSLATED BY HAFTU GEBREZGABIHER & SAMARAY KAHSAY
