Russia has offered technical assistance to countries involved in the dispute over Ethiopia's construction of the Renaissance dam on the Blue Nile river. This was stated on Wednesday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after talks with the Foreign Ministers of the African Union Troika (DRC, Egypt, South Africa), which was held as a video-conference.
"We offered our assistance to the participants of the conflict, including technical assistance. There are things that can be useful. They know about it, " he said.
"The United States also offered their services to them. Several meetings were held in the United States, and we welcomed the progress that has been made. Now it is encouraging that the parties agreed some time ago to speed up contacts through relevant Ministers, " the Minister said.
Lavrov reminded that Russia was under discussion in the UN Security Council to discuss the construction of the dam called as soon as possible to complete the coordination of generally acceptable approaches based on existing for such cases for international law and taking into account the interests of all parties involved.
Since 2011, Ethiopia has been implementing a project to create Africa's largest dam on the Blue Nile, consisting of 15 radial-axial hydroelectric units. The capacity of the HPP, which will be a cascade of four dams, will be 5,250 MW. Addis Ababa intends to put it into operation in 2022-2023. The project cost 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 it to export it to neighboring countries. Egypt and Sudan fear that the operation of the Ethiopian hydroelectric power station in the Nile may lead to water shortages, which will lead to numerous economic and environmental problems. Egypt, which has a population of more than 100 million and continues to grow steadily, is more afraid of this.
On July 3, the Sudanese News Agency SUNA reported that Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan had resumed negotiations on the issue at the level of Ministers of Irrigation and Water Resources.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: middle-east-online.com
Based on materials from TASS