After seven-year absence, Will Egypt return to Nile Basin Initiative?

CAIRO — After seven years during which Egypt froze its membership in the Nile Basin Initiative to object to the Entebbe Agreement — which does not recognize Egypt’s historical annual water quota from the Nile River and gives upstream countries the right to build dams without any prior notice — the Egyptian team handling the Nile water issue at the Foreign Ministry and Water Resources Ministry embarked on a round of negotiations that started with an extraordinary ministerial meeting in Uganda on March 29 and aimed to find a formula of understanding that satisfies all parties and paves the way for Egypt's return to the Nile Basin Initiative. This comes ahead of the Nile Summit scheduled for June in Uganda.

The Egyptian decision to return to the initiative remains dependent on canceling the legal effects of the unilateral signature by the Nile upstream states on the cooperative framework agreement (CFA) known in the media as the Entebbe Agreement.

However, in light of the insistence by the Nile upstream states on the CFA, the first round of negotiations ended without any agreement being reached, as Egypt requested more time to review its report on its concerns.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, an Egyptian diplomatic source familiar with the Nile Basin issue said, "The political administration is now adopting policies to support its presence in the regional environment in Africa in order to secure Egyptian interests. We have a clear vision that the Nile basin issue is the key issue underlying Egypt’s role in Africa. Egypt will not promote its African bilateral relations or have a greater influence within the African regional organizations unless the dispute with the Nile upstream countries on the management of water in the river is resolved.”