President Mohamed Morsi met with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit in Addis Ababa on Sunday. The two discussed bilateral relations and the future involvements of the Egyptian government in the South Sudanese sectors of electricity, health, education, and human development. Morsi emphasised Egypt's interest in furthering cooperation between Nile Basin countries, stressing South Sudan's importance in moving towards a consensus over the contentious issue of Nile water between nations. The Egyptian president also welcomed positive developments between South Sudan and Sudan, according to a statement issued by the presidency. President Morsi also met with President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday, congratulating Kenyatta for his recent election victory and proposing cooperation in agriculture, mining, water resources, and irrigation. Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir met with Morsi on Saturday to discuss bilateral relations as they related to trade and investment. The meetings were conducted on the sidelines of the 21st African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The summit was scheduled approximately one month before the upcoming Nile Basin summit in Juba, South Sudan, at a time when tensions between some of those nations are on the rise. On Saturday Morsi discussed bilateral relations and the construction of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. The Ethiopian prime minister stressed that the damn would not affect the water shares or interests in either Sudan or Egypt, according to Egyptian Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Bahaa Al-Din.
