Disagreements over Ethiopia's construction of the Renaissance Dam in the upper Nile should be resolved exclusively between the states concerned through dialogue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday at a joint press conference following talks with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry.
"As for the Renaissance Dam, this issue has long been raised by our Egyptian friends," the Russian Foreign Minister said. - "We are sincerely interested in resolving it. It is possible only within the three states concerned. Everyone else must create necessary favorable conditions".
The Minister reminded that in due time the Russian Federation authorities offered the countries involved in this dispute technical expertise, first of all, imagery from space and analysis of experts in the field of water and energy. "We do not claim any other roles," he continued. - "We were not invited as mediators. The US, the European Union, the UN, and the African Union were invited as mediators, which I think is very important because the African Union is exactly the structure where all three players are represented and where the African tradition of solving African problems through the efforts of African countries themselves should appear".
"We are very active not only in this case but also in any other issue including conflicts which still exist in Africa and we support the principle of African solutions to African problems," Lavrov emphasized.
Since 2011, Ethiopia is implementing a project to build Africa's largest dam " Renaissance" ("Hidase") of 15 radial-axis hydroelectric units. The capacity of the hydropower plant, which will be a cascade of four dams, will be 5,250 MW. The project is 80% complete, Addis Ababa intends to commission the facility in 2022-2023. The cost of the project is $4.6 billion. For Ethiopia, the construction of the plant is a huge economic project, the implementation of which will provide the country with electricity and allow exporting it to neighboring states. Egypt and Sudan fear that the operation of the Ethiopian hydropower plant may result in an acute shortage of water in the Nile, which will lead to numerous social, economic and environmental problems, and are trying to fix for themselves water standards and maximize the time of filling the reservoir.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: iddle-east-online.com
Based on materials from TASS