Representatives from Egypt's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation met with their counterparts in Sudan and Ethiopia to discuss the most recent report on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) 20 September, the ministry said in a statement. Known as the National Tripartite meetings, the representatives continued to discuss a positive framework by the three states concerning studies of the dam's redistribution of water and its, "environmental impacts of cross-border downstream countries". The findings will be handed over to an international committee of experts to facilitate that framework. Division of water resources has strained relations between Egypt and Ethiopia since the construction of GERD, which Egypt fears will affect its share of Nile water. A two day meeting occurred in late August in Khartoum between the three countries; Minister of Water and Irrigation Hasan El-Din Mogahzy stated that Egypt would not prevent the development of fellow Nile basin countries as long as it was for their mutual benefit. Moghazy also pointed out that Egypt would need a guarantee of its share of Nile water. Previous agreements made in 1929 and 1959, which guaranteed Egypt the lion's share of Nile water, were signed in Ethiopia's absence. Mohgazy's Ethiopian counterpart, Alemayehu Tegenu, has emphasised GERD's ability to reduce poverty in Ethiopia.
