Ethiopia Dismayed by League of Arab States` “Resolution” on GERD

Addis Ababa, March 11, 2023(Walta) – Ethiopia is dismayed by the “resolution” the League of Arab States issued on 9 March 2023, regarding the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

FDRE Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its statement, underscored that the management and utilization of the Nile River, including the filling and operation of the GERD, must be left to the concerned parties in Africa.

“We should not have to remind the League that the Nile River and all the riparian countries are found in Africa. The League is once again serving as the spokesperson of one state, disregarding basic principles of international law. Such attempts to politicize the issue of GERD neither advances friendly relations nor supports the efforts to arrive at amicable solutions as they are not based on facts or supported by law.”

The statement added that the African Union has been facilitating the trilateral negotiations among Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt to resolve the remaining outstanding issues guided by the maxim, “African Solutions to African Problems.”

It noted that the League’s characterization of the negotiations on the other hand is incorrect.

The fact is that Egypt, with its obdurate stance to maintain a colonial era-based self-claimed water allocation and its unending attempts to internationalize the matter, is the reason for the delay of the negotiation, the ministry pointed out.

The Government of Ethiopia has been committed to the AU-led negotiations. Hence, the League’s resolutions and statements by Egypt call into question whether Egypt has been engaged in good faith in the negotiations under the AU’s auspices, the statement added.

The statement finally underlined that the government continues to fill and operate the GERD in accordance with the Agreement on the Declaration of Principles of March 2015 signed between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan, with full respect to the principle of equitable and reasonable utilization of transboundary water resources.