Egypt's Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly met on Sunday with his Ethiopian counterpart Abiy Ahmed on the sidelines of the 11th African Union Extraordinary Summit in Addis Ababa, delivering a message from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on enhancing bilateral relations between the two countries. The prime minister affirmed Egypt's keenness on bolstering the level of relations between the two countries to a full partnership, noting his country's readiness to exchange expertise in the field of constructing new cities and roads in Ethiopia, in light of the development plan adopted by Addis Ababa. He also stressed the necessity that the partnership between both countries should ensure the fulfilling the aspirations of the two brotherly people in development and in preservation of their water interests. The Ethiopian premier affirmed his country's commitment to completing technical negotiations in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance file, based on the agreement and mutual understanding reached in 2015. Abiy stressed his personal concern with preserving the rights of Egypt and all the African countries associated with the Nile with the river, noting that both sides agreed during their meeting to start bilateral negotiations within the next two weeks to reach an agreement on unsettled points. During his participation in the meetings on behalf of Sisi, Madbouly said he agreed with his Ethiopian counterpart on establishing a trilateral Egyptian, Sudanese and Ethiopian fund, via a meeting between the governors of the central banks of the three countries to finalise the agreement. Madbouly noted that Egypt has actively participated in the preparatory committees of the current summit, stressing that Egypt supports the efforts to reform the African Union's organisational structure. The Egyptian prime minister noted that that the environmental aspect was one of the fundamentals of the current African dialogue, as well as the restructuring of the African Union Development Agency. In August, Egypt and Ethiopia agreed to overcome obstacles in negotiations over the disputed dam project Addis Ababa is building on the Blue Nile that Cairo fears will diminish its water supplies, Egypt's foreign ministry said. During the August talks, officials discussed efforts to implement a 2015 agreement signed by Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan over Nile water rights and addressed decisions made by the officials of the three countries during talks in May, which broke months of deadlock. These decisions include setting up a scientific study group to consult the nations on the process of filling the reservoir of the 6,000-megawatt dam and that the leaders of the three nations will meet every six months for consultations Source: Ahram Online
