Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan announced they reached full agreement, hopefully it is for real

Tigrai Online, March 8, 2015

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti and Egyptian Water and Irrigation Minister Hossam Moghazi had concluded their trilateral meeting in Khartoum, Sudan on March 5, 2015.

Following the conclusion of the meeting ministers announced they had agreed on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the use of the eastern Nile basin.

The statements from each countries minister stated the agreed document has been sent to the respective governments for further examination and ultimately for final approval. The details of the agreement are not disclosed to the public yet and that makes us extremely nervous.

If we can take the news at face value it is great, but we have seen the Egyptian politicians hesitating complaining and outright opposing the GERD in the past.

Their past track record makes it a little bit difficult to trust what they say, but if it is true it a great news for Ethiopia and for the whole region.

Each minister gave slightly different, but very similar explanation about what this latest agreement is all about. The Sudanese foreign minister is quoted as saying, “a full agreement has been reached between our three countries on the principles of the use of the eastern Nile Basin and the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam”.

We have not seen a formal response to any media outlet from the Ethiopian Foreign Minister, but he said this on his Face book page, “Egypt, ‪‎Ethiopia and ‎Sudan, just concluded successful trilateral negotiations. We prepared an agreement on Declaration of Principles on GERD that will be forwarded to our Principals. We hope this will take our Eastern Nile partnership to a higher level”.

The Egyptian Water and Irrigation Minister Hossam Moghazi was quoted by Sudan Tribune how he saw the agreed principles “pertain to the systems and mechanism for operating the Renaissance Dam and the mechanism for cooperation on this dam.”

Now judge for yourself what each minister is saying and what this new agreement meant to each country. We know the Egyptians are have a hard time accepting the hard fact that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is 46% completed and it will be completed with or without their agreement.

We would safely assume this is one of the usual political maneuvers internal consumption mainly by the Egyptian government because the construction of the GERD is continuing 24 hours despite what is being said in the media front.

In an interview with NewstimeAfrica on March 1, 2015, the Ethiopian Minister of Water, Energy and Irrigation Alemayehu Tegenu summed up the Ethiopian principle regarding the Nile usage precisely.

When the Newtime Africa asked the minister, This political agreement is said to prohibit Ethiopia from building any dam on the Nile without prior notice and consent of Egypt and Sudan? What would you say to this?

Minister Tegenu answered:  Ethiopia will never ask the consent of any country to undertake development projects. Ethiopia is an independent country and will never request the consent of any country. Ethiopia will undertake its development projects in a way that does not cause any significant harm to any country. Moreover, Ethiopia undertakes its development projects based on principles. It takes into consideration the benefits of the countries from the development projects as well as friendship and healthy relations with the countries.

We are also assuming the Ethiopian government has learned from the recent past not to sign any kind of final and binding agreements without full consultation of the Ethiopian people. It has been proven time and again any “final and binding” agreement signed without the knowledge of the public is null and void by the real stakeholders, the Ethiopian People.