Last Thursday, Ethiopia and Egypt released a joint statement announcing that they plan to expedite negotiations on operations of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, finalizing an agreement within the next four months. This announcement comes after years of negotiations that have failed to generate any compromise (AP News). 

Ethiopian leadership argues that the reservoir created by the dam, which is the largest in Africa, has pulled millions of Ethiopians out of poverty; meanwhile, Egypt, which relies on the Nile River for as much as 97% of its fresh water, asserts that the absence of a binding agreement around operation of the dam is a threat to national security (Bloomberg). Egypt is particularly concerned about how much water Ethiopia will release downstream in the event of a multi-year drought (AP News).

The new agreement will include Sudan, also dependent on the Nile for water resources (Bloomberg). The joint statement does not describe the anticipated agreement as legally binding, something that Ethiopia and Sudan have pursued (AP News).