Egypt's Sisi voices concern over lack of negotiations on Ethiopia's mega dam

CAIRO, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi stressed on Thursday his extreme concern over the lack of progress in the negotiations over the building of Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

During a joint press conference with visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Sisi stressed the necessity to overcome current obstacles in ongoing negotiations over the massive dam.

Sisi has also expressed understanding of the developmental goals Ethiopia aims to achieve with the GERD.

"We don't want any one-sided decisions on the dam filling process," Sisi said, adding that the GERD should not harm Egypt's interests or its share of Nile water.

The Egyptian president said that Egypt's recent proposal to include the World Bank as a neutral mediator in GERD negotiations was aimed at overcoming the delays in technical negotiations and to reassure all involved countries.

He added that the Egyptian proposal to include the World Bank is up to Ethiopia and Sudan to study, saying he has agreed with the Ethiopian Prime Minister on another vision.

However, he said he would not reveal the details at this time.

For his part, Desalegn affirmed that both countries should work together on overcoming obstacles through wise and friendly dialogue.

"Our destinies are common and bound by the River Nile, which represents a vein of life joining our nations," he said.

Desalegn affirmed that the dam will not have any negative impact on Egypt, pointing out that it will further contribute to the development of all Nile Basin countries, especially Egypt and Sudan.

The diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Egypt is largely intertwined with the Blue Nile River that originates from Ethiopia and shared among Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.

The construction of the GERD on the river, which will be regarded as Africa's largest dam upon completion with a total volume of 74,000 million cubic meters, has been a major issue among the two countries since its commencement in April, 2011 with a construction cost of 80 billion Ethiopian birr (close to 4.7 billion U.S. dollars).

While Ethiopia and Sudan reached mutual consensus on the construction of the dam, Egypt frequently expressed its concern that the dam would affect its annual share of 55.5 billion cubic meters of the Nile River water amid the GERD's rapid construction. Enditem