The virtual meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Ministers of Water Affairs of Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan was held on Sunday.
The meeting is convened by the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa and Chairperson of the AU Executive Council, according to the press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The meeting is conducted after the failure of the three countries to continue the trilateral process in the previous week due to the absence of Sudan, it was indicated.
The Ministers exchanged views on the continuation of the trilateral negotiation, the press release added.
The Chairperson of the AU Executive Council to assist progress proposed for the three countries to have a three days bilateral meeting with the AU designated experts to be followed by a trilateral meeting and report the outcome to her office.
While Ethiopia and Egypt agreed with the proposition, Sudan declined to compel the closure of the meeting.
It is to be recalled that in the previous week, the delegation of Sudan insisted on having bilateral meetings with AU assigned experts rejecting trilateral meetings of the parties.
Yet, on today’s meeting, Sudan refused to have the bilateral meeting with the AU assigned experts as proposed by the AU chair, putting enhancement of the TOR of the experts as a prerequisite, says a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to the statement, Ethiopia undertook to cater to the concerns of Sudan on dam safety, data exchange, and other technical issues. In this respect, Ethiopia took the initiative to immediately establish an effective and reciprocal data exchange mechanism.
Following this, the Chairperson of the AU Executive Council will report to the Chairperson of the African Union.