CAIRO — As part of extensive diplomatic actions to shore up support for Egypt in the Nile dam dispute, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry has toured seven Arab capitals — Amman, Muscat, Baghdad, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait City and Manama — since March 7. He also went on a European tour that included Belgium and France on March 11, in addition to another tour of the African continent on March 17 to Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Africa, Congo, South Sudan and Niger. Meanwhile, a delegation from the Foreign Ministry covered a number of other Arab countries including Tunisia, Algeria and Mauritania on March 15.

Shoukry’s tours carried a single message from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to the Arab and European region to mobilize positions in support of the Egyptian stance against Ethiopia’s failure to sign the comprehensive agreement to fill and operate the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which was reached under US auspices during meetings that took place within four months, from November 2019 to February 2020. 

During his tour, Shoukry also sought to explain what happened during the negotiation process that continued with the Ethiopian side since March 2015 after the signing of the Agreement on Declaration of Principles, as well as the consequences and repercussions that may result from any unilateral Ethiopian decision to fill the GERD without signing the agreement with Egypt and Sudan.

Shoukry’s Arab tour, which targeted most of the Gulf states active in the Arab and African regions, came after the Arab Foreign Ministers Council backed Egypt’s historical rights in the waters of the Nile, against the ongoing Ethiopian refusal to sign the agreement. This also comes amid Ethiopian media escalation against Cairo and its adherence to the Washington agreement, which Ethiopia believes to be inconsiderate of its interests.