“The two sides agreed, after a thorough discussion of various fields of cooperation, to implement the signed agreements and look for new fields of cooperation in addition to the present fields in investment, health, and post-graduate education,” read a joint statement issued by the Fifth Joint Egyptian-Ethiopian Committee session on Ethiopia's planned Renaissance Dam project on Monday. During this meeting, Cairo and Addis Ababa signed agreements and memoranda of understanding in the fields of education, trade, health, women's affairs and diplomatic training. “All bilateral agreements signed in the past or to be signed in the future are very important. However, the core and crux of the relation between Cairo and Addis Ababa is the Nile water issue. It should come as the first priority in any plans for cooperation,” said a diplomat who preferred to remain anonymous. Meghawri Shehata, a professor of hydrogeology and water resources, said that any form of cooperation with Ethiopia would likely be superficial without agreement on the dam. “How can I cooperate with somebody who could be causing my country genuine problems,” he asked, expressing the hope that Ethiopia would now abide by the Malabo Agreement and other international agreements that regulate international river cooperation. Helmi Sharawi, a former director of the Arab and African Research Centre in Cairo, said that cooperation in various fields could overcome major problems like the Renaissance Dam, however. “The logic says that we can develop bilateral relations in fields like trade, import and export, etc., in order to address and resolve bilateral differences,” he said. In the joint statement issued after the meeting, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri and his Ethiopian counterpart Tedros Adhanom re-emphasised their commitment to the joint declaration issued after the summit meeting between president Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in June during the African Summit in Equatorial Guinea. Shoukri and Adhanom agreed to join efforts in combating terrorism in the region, discussed a number of regional issues including the Palestinian issue and the situation in Libya and Burkina Faso, and agreed on the importance of resolving these issues via peaceful means. Officials from at least 11 Egyptian ministries had travelled to Addis Ababa to attend the meetings, including the ministries of foreign trade and industry, culture, education, investment and electricity. They met on Saturday and Sunday at the start of the Fifth Egyptian-Ethiopian Commission meeting in Addis Ababa before Monday's ministerial meeting that was attended by Shoukri and Adhanom. Shoukri and Adhanom held closed talks on Sunday as the two countries moved ahead to end months of diplomatic tension over Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam project that is currently being built on the Blue Nile. Shoukri said after that meeting that his visits to Ethiopia had aimed to “regain the warmth and depth of the bilateral relationship so that [both countries] can respond to meeting the challenges that both peoples face and also their aspirations for development and a common future.” Tensions grew between the two countries after Ethiopia decided to go ahead in building the $4.2 billion Renaissance Dam despite Egypt's fears that the construction would negatively affect its share of Nile water. About one third of the dam project has now been completed, and it is due to open in 2017. Ties between the two states picked up following the election of Al-Sisi as Egypt's president, who had said before he became president that he was ready to go to Addis Ababa to seek solutions to the standoff over the dam. Egypt and Ethiopia agreed to resume tripartite talks, also including the downstream country of Sudan, after Desalegn and Al-Sisi's meeting in June. The fourth tripartite meeting on the dam was held in Khartoum in August. At the meeting, the three countries decided that a six-month period was necessary to thoroughly assess the impact of the dam and agreed to the formation of a 12-member technical committee, four experts from each state, to review the findings. If the committee members fail to agree, differences will be referred to international arbitration. If the international decision is unacceptable to the parties, their differences will be submitted for a further round of international arbitration. The third round of tripartite talks, held in January, ended without agreement being reached. The first and second rounds, held in November and December 2013, failed even to identify points that needed to be discussed. After the ouster of Islamist former president Mohamed Morsi in Egypt last year, various meetings were held and more that 20 cooperation agreements signed in the hope of improving relations and putting the Nile water issue on the track for resolution. But it was obvious, Shehata said, that Ethiopia and Sudan were not willing to change their stance on building the dam. “Ethiopia considers the dam to be a national project that it is not willing to give up or even share with other states,” he said. However, he added, there was still hope that a resolution could be found. “We will wait to see the report of the technical committee or the international arbitration committee that I am sure will back the Egyptian stand.” Ethiopia is the source of 85 per cent of the Nile's water, and Egypt has repeatedly expressed its concern that the Renaissance Dam could diminish the river's flow and reduce the amount of water that reaches the country. A 1959 agreement gives Egypt and Sudan the lion's share of the Nile's water, 55.5 billion cubic metres and 18 billion cubic metres, respectively, and the right to veto any projects built along the river. Ethiopia, together with other Nile Basin states, is seeking to replace the 1959 agreement with the Entebbe Agreement, which Addis Ababa claims provides for a fairer distribution of water. Cairo and Khartoum have both refused to sign the Entebbe Agreement. South Sudan signed in April 2013, leaving Congo as the only upstream country that has yet to sign. A tripartite technical committee including Egyptian, Ethiopian, Sudanese and international experts began its assessment of the impact of the Renaissance Dam project on Sudan and Egypt in 2011. The committee's final report, issued last year, said that preliminary studies conducted on the dam's impact were insufficient to justify construction and more studies were needed.
