The will-they-won’t-they of the GERD negotiations is back: Ethiopia is interested in returning to the negotiating table with Egypt and Sudan to seal an agreement over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), according to statements made by a senior Ethiopian official at the weekend. In a meeting with US envoy Mike Hammer, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to the US Sileshi Bekele “highlighted Ethiopia’s interest to resume the African Union-led trilateral negotiation over the GERD,” the country’s foreign ministry said Friday.

There’s just one problem with that: Egypt and Sudan have rejected the AU-led process and have called for new mediators to be brought in to manage the negotiations. Ethiopia has insisted that it will only continue talks with the AU at the helm while Egypt and Sudan have refused to negotiate unless Ethiopia agrees to a new intermediary.

This came just a day after El Sisi reiterated our position on GERD: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Thursday told Tanzanian Foreign Minister Liberata Mulamula that Cairo still seeks to preserve its water security and historical rights to Nile water through a legally binding agreement on the filling and operations of the dam, a statement by Ittihadiya read. Mulamula delivered a letter from Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan updating El Sisi on the implementation of the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Plant and Dam that Elsewedy Electric and Arab Contractors are building in Tanzania.

The GERD negotiations have been ongoing for almost a decade: The dam has been a growing source of tension between Ethiopia and the two downstream countries in recent years as Addis Ababa persisted with filling the reservoir despite not reaching an agreement with Cairo and Khartoum. Negotiations have been stalled since last summer when Ethiopia embarked on the second filling even as Egypt lodged a formal appeal to the UN Security Council to force it to the negotiating table.

Ethiopia will start the third filling by the end of summer: Last month, the dam’s project manager Kifle Horo said that Ethiopia will start the dam’s third filling in August and September, adding that it is an “automatic process” that cannot be stopped. Sudan responded by reiterating its demands for a “fair and binding” agreement before Ethiopia continues to fill the reservoir.

GERD has pushed Egypt to put water security front and center: Egypt has for years made water security a top priority, working to limit the impact of GERD on our water supply. More than 85% of the water that flows into the Blue Nile originates in Ethiopia’s highlands, and the threat remains that Ethiopia will fail to release water from the hydroelectric GERD in the event of a drought downstream.

The Associated Press took note of the news.

OTHER DIPLO NEWS worth noting in brief include:

• World Bank directors talk development + COP27 + economy during visit: Egypt’s development priorities, measures to mitigate the economic fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war, and preparations for COP27 topped the agenda for a delegation of executive directors from the World Bank Group that wrapped up on Thursday, according to a statement (pdf).
• Drumming up climate finance: International Cooperation Minister Rania Al Mashat talked about boosting financing cooperation on climate with European Investment Bank (EIB) President Werner Hoyer in Luxembourg on Thursday, according to a ministry statement. The pair discussed how to mobilize more finance for climate mitigation and adaptation and local energy, transportation, agriculture, and water resources projects.
• Egypt and Jordan will work together on oil and natural gas, petrochems, and mineral resources as per an MoU the two countries signed on Thursday, according to an Oil Ministry statement.