[News] For the Renaissance Dam... Egyptian and Sudanese moves in New York

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On Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held a series of intensive interviews as part of preparations for the next session of the Security Council on the issue of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam scheduled for Thursday.

Shoukry met with the permanent representatives of Russia and China, as well as the permanent delegates of the United States, Britain and France to the United Nations, as well as the troika of the African Union consisting of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Senegal.

The official spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ahmed Hafez, stated that Shoukry reviewed, during these meetings, the dimensions of the Egyptian position on the issue of the Renaissance Dam, as he highlighted Egypt's serious involvement in negotiations over a decade with the aim of reaching a binding legal agreement on filling and operating the dam that takes into account the interests of the three countries.

He stressed the paramount importance of the Renaissance Dam issue in light of its infringement on the capabilities of the Egyptian people.

Hafez added that the Foreign Minister stressed during the interviews the need for the Security Council to assume its responsibilities in this regard, to support efforts to resolve the stalled negotiations, and to push for a fair, balanced and legally binding agreement that achieves the interests of the three countries.

This comes after the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Maryam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, met with Shukry in New York, in continuation of the continuous coordination in order to reach a comprehensive and binding legal agreement on the Renaissance Dam.

Ethiopian letter to Sudan

In this context, the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources received a letter from its Ethiopian counterpart informing it of the start of the second filling of the Renaissance Dam during the current rainy season, stressing that this notification is useless unless negotiations and agreement on filling and operating the dam are negotiated.

The official spokesman for the Sudanese negotiating team, Omar Al-Farouq Kamel, said, "Sudan renews its rejection of the unilateral filling of the Renaissance Dam for the second year in a row without an agreement, which is a clear violation of international law and the agreement of principles, agreements and the stable practice regulating the exchange of benefits for common rivers."

draft resolution

For its part, Tunisia submitted to its 14 partners in the UN Security Council a draft resolution calling on Ethiopia to stop filling the Renaissance Dam reservoir, according to diplomatic sources.

The draft resolution seen by Agence France-Presse sti[CENSORED]tes that the Security Council asks “Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to resume their negotiations at the request of the African Union President and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in order to reach, within 6 months, the text of a binding agreement to fill the dam.” and its management.

According to the draft resolution, this binding agreement should "ensure Ethiopia's ability to produce hydroelectric power from the Renaissance Dam and at the same time prevent significant damage to the water security of the downstream countries."

In the draft resolution, the Security Council also calls on "the three countries to refrain from any declaration or action that may jeopardize the negotiation process", and at the same time urges "Ethiopia to refrain from unilaterally continuing to fill the reservoir of the Renaissance Dam."

The American position

The US State Department stated that Ethiopia's filling of the Renaissance Dam reservoir would likely increase tension, and urged all parties to refrain from unilateral moves towards the dam.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States calls on all parties to commit to a negotiated solution.

Dujarric said that "solutions to this issue need to be guided by examples and models with solutions developed by others who share waterways and rivers, and this is based on the principle of fair and reasonable use and the obligation not to cause significant harm."