Ethiopian Foreign Minister Dr Tedros Adhanom has held talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Nabil Fahmy, focusing on bilateral issues, on the sidelines of the 68th United Nations General Assembly in New York.
During their meeting last Thursday, the two discussed on ways of enhancing bilateral relations in different areas and other issues of mutual interest while Dr Tedros stated Ethiopia’ commitment to building trust between the two countries and with other riparian states over the utilization of the waters of the River Nile.
Dr Tedros further emphasized Ethiopia’s firm stand that the country was keen to enhance development through utilization of the Nile waters without harming the interests of Egypt or any of the other Nile riparian countries.
He added that the fates of the two countries were strongly linked and co-operation between them remained indispensable to build common values and shared aspirations of their peoples.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister recalled that during Egypt’s July Revolution, there were acrimonious utterances which affected the relations between the two nations.
He, however, noted that Egypt was reshaping its foreign policy in a way which would promote a win-win approach and give more focus to its neighbours, including Ethiopia.
He re-affirmed his government’s readiness to work closely with Ethiopia in a bid to ensure the benefit of the peoples of the two countries. Fahmy also expressed Egypt’s interest to resume discussions on the recommendations of the International Panel of Experts on Ethiopia’s Grand Rennaissance Dam project on the River Nile.
The commission was commissioned to assess the impact of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on downstream countries.
Dr Tedros also underlined the importance of the discussions, and stressed Ethiopia’s commitment to overcome mistrust and uncertainties which had defined relations between the two countries in the past.
The two ministers also discussed political developments in the Horn of Africa sub-region, as well as the deadly attack by the Somali Al-Shabaab militant group on a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya.
Fahmy requested Ethiopia to support Egypt in its bid to lift the African Union Peace and Security Council’s decision to suspend Egypt from its membership.
Dr Tedros expressed Ethiopia’s sincere desire that Egypt would be able to overcome the effects of the suspension in accordance with the rules and procedures of the AU, according to a report posted on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
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