BY HAILE DEMEKE
The talks between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) are still at standstill. The filling and operation of the dam remain topics of disputes.
The talks are currently deadlocked with the parties engaging in war of words. Particularly, officials from Cairo are exerting maximum pressures on Ethiopia so as to deliberately delay the project and to halt its construction if possible.
Previously, Cairo has made relentless effort to politicize and internationalize the GERD by taking the issue to the UNSC, however, its attempts cut short with the issue put under the auspicious of the African Union.
Deliberately entering at loggerhead with Ethiopia over GERD talks, Egypt is now seeking to establish strong relations with upstream countries particularly the DRC. Cairo is also on mission to form unholy alliances with other countries to sway them politically and impact GERD technical negotiation.
The continued negotiation over the GERD among Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan has produced no meaningful binding agreement so far. This and other motives once again pushed the Egyptian political administration to renew its policy based on mending and strengthening its relationship with other Nile upstream countries in the equatorial lakes region, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Egypt considers the current chair of the African Union as its close political and strategic allies since the beginning of the Nile water dispute. Since then, Cairo tried to adopt divisive approach on the Nile.
While opposing g Ethiopia’s right to utilize the Nile waters without affecting riparian countries, Cairo is trying to support hydro projects in other upstream countries.
Egypt’s diplomacy towards upstream countries is meant at delaying GERD and also imposing colonial treaties on Ethiopia and others however. Egypt is wrongfully trying to portray itself as an ally of the upstream countries while its acts prove the opposite.
The fact that the country is trying to prevent the construction of GERD is a case in point. There could be no solid fact about Egypt’s real identity other than its acts on the GERD talks as well.
However, with Ethiopia having a real cause and reasonable arguments, upstream countries do understand the purpose of the construction of the flagship project. And, Ethiopia has strengthened its diplomatic works once again. This in fact is an antidote to Egypt’s age-old conspiracy to sow discord among the upstream countries of the Nile.
Ministers Advisor and expert of trans-boundary resources at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and member of the GERD negotiation team representing Ethiopia, Ambassador Ibrahim Idris, told The Ethiopian Herald that from the very beginning, Egypt’s diplomatic approach was to convince Ethiopia and other upper riparian states to sign and accept the colonial treaties which granted the country the full utilization of the Nile water at the expense of other upstream states.
Their new diplomatic alliance with upper riparian states is aimed at perpetuating its unfair utilization of the resources and applying the colonial agreements.
“Egypt’s stand on GERD from the very beginning is illegal and unfair. They are solely using the common resources without sharing it with other riparian states so far.”
“This is immoral and against international law of trans-boundary resources. They have the right to support every country in the globe but they are not able to stop Ethiopia from using its resource. Ethiopia has natural right to use its own resources according to laws.”
Ethiopia contributes over 85 percent of the Nile waters while Egyptian is using over 90 percent of the rivers contributing zero percent. Ethiopians have natural rights to use the resources without harming downstream countries. There is no moral and legal ground which prohibits Ethiopia from doing it, he added.
Ethiopia has good neighborly relation with all of African countries and strengthening ties with all of them. The president’s last month’s visit to the countries of Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo was successful in setting out plans to increase diplomatic engagements.
Expert on trans-boundary resources told The Ethiopian Herald also said under in a condition of anonymity that there is no binding agreement so far in how to operate and fill the dam. This is because the Egyptians are using all methods to delay the talks so.
He said that the Egyptians have two primary goals. Their primary intention is weakening the legal bindings of equitable and reasonable utilization of the water resources which is against international rules of trans-boundary resources so as to apply the colonial agreements on Ethiopia and other states. They are also working consistently to delay the talks with the intention of delaying the filling of the dam, according to him.
The upper riparian states are sourcing the resources. The Egyptian is wishing and exerting pressures on Ethiopia and other upper riparian states to ratify the colonial treaties.
Egypt and Sudan signed an agreement in 1959 “full utilization of the Nile waters” which allowed the entire resource to be shared among the two countries which is completely unfair and is against international law.
Egypt is leaving no stone unturned to create confusion on the Nile politics. Egypt is now worried in finding new alliances from the basin countries no matter how absurd its logic is.
There remains strong argument that Egypt and Sudan are intentionally delaying the AU-led negotiation so that they can rely on new leadership of the AU to meet their ends.
Spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia Ambassador Dina Mufti said that Egypt’s relations with upstream countries do not bother Ethiopia.
In fact, Ethiopia has been strong partner in ensuring peace and stability in the region. He recalled that Ethiopia’s role in restoring and building peace during the time the DRC had faced civil war in the 1960s.
Ethiopia is committed to the trilateral negotiation that has been going on under the auspices of the AU and Ethiopia would like that the process will succeed as it is a staunch supporter and proponent of the African solutions to African problems.
Ethiopia believes that the three countries will reach an agreement that all parties would accept without harming one another through win-win process. “We will continue negotiation until we find possible solution which agreed all of us over this issue. Ethiopia has good relationship with all African brothers and will continue to further strengthen our relation.”
Ethiopia gives credit to the former AU Chairperson South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa for his relentless efforts in bringing the tripartite parties together to find possible solutions regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). He played pivotal in bringing the three countries together and proceeds with the negotiation smoothly despite all hindrances.
“We should continue from where we have stopped and hopefully the African initiative will continue so as to find solutions. The trilateral talk will continue and the new AU chairmanship headed by Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi takes over the negotiation and Ethiopia remains fully confident in the AU-led negotiation and the principle of ‘African solutions to African problems’. After all, Ethiopia’s genuine and rational causes in the construction of its flagship project could be proved wrong no matter how much Egypt conspires.
The Ethiopian Herald February 26/2021
