Panafrican News Agency

Egyptian leader announces meeting with Ethiopian PM in Moscow on Renaissance Dam issue

Cairo, Egypt (PANA)  - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi said here Sunday he would meet with the Ethiopian prime minister in Moscow to examine again the issue of the Renaissance Dam.

Speaking at the 31st cultural conference of Egyptian armed forces, President Sissi said that all problems could be overcome.

He said he signed, after his accession to the Egyptian presidency, a deal with Ethiopia and Sudan that included several points, the most important of which concerned how to determine, through negotiations, the filling and functioning of the dam.

He, however, added that negotiations were not followed to reach a technical deal between Egypt and Ethiopia on the issue.

He insisted on the will of the Egyptian government to accelerate the execution of several big stations of water desalination in several Egyptian governorates to face the increasing deficit of water needs for countries, seeing the very significant demographic rise.

He added that Egypt’s quota in the Nile waters, which was at 55,000 cubic meters per year, was not sufficient to satisfy all different water needs for the country.

According to Sissi, Egypt is committed to find solutions without prejudice to another country of the region, whatever the divergences between them.

The crisis between the two countries has reappeared after a period of optimism following the visit of the Ethiopian prime minister to Cairo in 2018 during which President Sissi had announced that the two parties had reached a deal in respect of the right of development of each country without prejudice to the other.

 

-0-      PANA      YY/IN/TBM/MSA/RA     13Oct2019