CAIRO — Abdel Mahmoud Abdel Halim, Sudan's ambassador to Egypt, issued an invitation on March 13 to the Egyptian government for an April 4-5 tripartite meeting, along with Ethiopia, to discuss the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) reservoir. The invitation was extended to foreign affairs and irrigation ministers as well as, for the first time, security and intelligence officials.

The Ethiopian government had formally handed over to Egypt and Sudan in mid-February its unilateral plan for filling the dam reservoir amid stalled technical and political talks with Egypt and Sudan. So far, disagreements have hindered studies on the dam's impact and all three states have failed to agree on issues involving filling and operating the dam.

Gedion Asfaw, head of the Ethiopian team to the Tripartite National Committee (TNC), told Al-Monitor, “The [filling] plan was sent in an official letter from the Ethiopian minister of water to Egypt, and we will not stop providing information and disclosing our plan. We have asked for a meeting of [TNC] technicians to find the best solution, so as not to cause serious damage.”

Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia suspended technical talks in November 2017 after failing to reach agreement on the inception report for assessing the hydrological, environmental and economic impacts of the mega project on the downstream countries. The consultants BRL and Artelia received the contracts for the assessment studies.