CAIRO — The technical and legal experts and ministers of water and foreign affairs of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia will keep trying to agree on a comprehensive document that will settle the outstanding issues and diverging positions regarding the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The deadline for agreeing on such a document is the end of February.

The ministers of water and foreign affairs in the three countries, the US Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin and president of the World Bank David Malpass met in Washington Jan. 31. A joint statement published by the US Department of the Treasury after the meeting noted that some key issues will be subject to the final signing of the comprehensive agreement.

These include “a schedule for a stage-based filling plan of the GERD; a mitigation mechanism for the filling of the GERD during drought, prolonged drought and prolonged periods of dry years; and a mitigation mechanism for the annual and long-term operation of the GERD in drought, prolonged drought and prolonged periods of dry years.”

However, the disparity between the statements issued by the Egyptian and Ethiopian Foreign Affairs ministries regarding the outcome of the meeting revealed a new dispute. The two statements were not aligned over some issues that were disregarded in past rounds of negotiations that kicked off in Washington in November 2019. The issues were related to the safety and security of the dam and the importance of completing the technical studies on its economic, social and environmental impacts on the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan.