With the participation of representatives from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.. launching of the Renaissance Dam negotiations

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have resumed their years-long negotiations over the controversial dam that Ethiopia is building on the main tributary of the Nile, officials said.

Sunday's resumption of talks came after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said last month that they aim to reach within four months an agreement on operating the $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile.

Blue Nile

  The Blue Nile meets the White Nile in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, before heading north through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.

Egypt fears a devastating impact if the dam is operated without taking into account its needs. She described it as an existential threat. The most populous country in the Arab world depends almost entirely on the Nile River to provide water for agriculture and its population of over 100 million. About 85% of the river's flow originates from Ethiopia.

Legal solutions

The Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation announced a new round of talks in Cairo. Irrigation Minister Hani Sweilem said Egypt wanted a legally binding agreement on how to operate and fill the giant dam.

Sweilem said there are many "technical and legal solutions" to the conflict, without elaborating.

Tensions escalated between Cairo and Addis Ababa after the Ethiopian government began filling the dam's reservoir before reaching an agreement.

Key questions remain about how much water Ethiopia will release downstream in the event of a multi-year drought, and how the three countries will work out any future disputes.

  Ethiopia rejected binding arbitration in the final phase of the project.

Ethiopia says the dam is necessary, arguing that most of its people lack electricity.

Renaissance Dam negotiations

Sudan wants Ethiopia to coordinate and exchange data on the operation of the dam to avoid floods and protect its energy-generating dams on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile. The dam is located just 10 kilometers from the Sudanese border.

The Renaissance Dam negotiations have stalled since April 2021, and before that date, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia held marathon negotiations over the years to no avail, which prompted Sudan to propose changing the negotiation methodology and expanding the umbrella of African mediation to become a quartet by including the United Nations, the European Union and the United States of America, which was supported by Egypt. Ethiopia rejected it.

On February 20, 2022, Ethiopia announced the operation of the dam and the start of the process of generating electricity from it, in a step that Egypt considered "a persistence on the part of Ethiopia in violating its obligations under the Declaration of Principles agreement" signed by the leaders of Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia in March 2015.