Egypt's Ministers Sameh Shoukry of Foreign Affairs and Mohamed Abdel Atti of Water Resources and Irrigation agreed to continue negotiations for the third straight day on Wednesday in Washington on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Wednesday. In a statement early Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry said the two ministers attended a meeting held by US President Donald Trump with the ministers of the three states. Foreign Ministry Sameh Shoukry underlined Egypt's appreciation for the efforts exerted by Trump and US treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in this vital file. On Tuesday, the Egyptian, Ethiopian and Sudanese ministers for foreign affairs and water resumed talks on regulations that should be adopted to fill and operate the dam. Technical talks were held to discuss details about the measures that should be adopted by Ethiopia. Four rounds of talks in the GERD negotiations were held as part of the roadmap agreed upon during a US-brokered meeting in Washington last November to break the deadlock in the negotiations. Ethiopia started constructing the GERD in 2011 on the Blue Nile in the northern Ethiopia highlands, from where most of the Nile's waters flow. Egypt fears that the speed of filling the Ethiopian dam will diminish its share of the river's water. Ethiopia aims to become the continent's biggest power exporter by generating more than 6,000 megawatts through the dam.
