Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said on Sunday that negotiations with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) have reached a dead end, warning that Cairo reserves the right to defend its national interests if its water security is endangered.
“After 12 years of negotiations, the process has not led to any tangible results,” Abdelatty said in a televised interview, accusing Addis Ababa of using talks as a tool to impose a fait accompli on downstream countries. “Ethiopia has exploited the negotiations to consolidate its unilateral actions, rather than reach a fair, legally binding agreement.”
The minister described water as Egypt’s foremost national security priority, reiterating that the country will not accept any compromise on its historic share of Nile water under any circumstances. “We must have full confidence in the Egyptian state and its institutions, which will not allow any threat to this existential issue,” he said.
Abdelatty warned that Egypt’s water situation is already under severe strain. While the country receives 55.5 billion cubic meters of water annually from the Nile, its total water needs exceed 90 billion cubic meters. “Egypt’s share does not cover our basic needs,” he noted, adding that per capita water availability in Egypt has fallen to 500 cubic meters per year—half the UN-designated threshold for water poverty.
The GERD, which Ethiopia has been constructing since 2011 on the Blue Nile near the Sudanese border, has been a source of tension with downstream Egypt and Sudan. Cairo fears the dam could significantly reduce its share of the Nile’s flow, on which it relies for over 90% of its fresh water.
“Egypt reserves the right to self-defense and to protect its water interests if they come under any form of threat,” Abdelatty stated firmly, in one of the clearest warnings issued by a top Egyptian official in recent months.
Cairo has long insisted on a binding agreement that guarantees coordination on dam operations and safeguards its water supply, while Ethiopia has maintained that GERD is a sovereign project essential for its development and energy generation needs.
