CAIRO, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Egypt sent a letter on Sunday to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), rejecting the latest Ethiopian "unilateral policies" regarding the fifth phase of filling its dam reservoir built on the two countries' shared Nile River, said the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
In the letter, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty expressed Egypt's "categorical rejection" of the recent remarks by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed about holding a portion of the water of the Blue Nile, headstream of the Nile River, to complete building the concrete structure of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the ministry said in a statement.
Abdelatty wrote that Ethiopia's "unilateral measures" regarding the GERD contravene international law and breach the Declaration of Principles, a tripartite deal signed by Ethiopia and downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan in 2015.
"Ethiopia's illegal policies will have serious negative impacts on the downstream countries," the Egyptian minister stressed.
He added that Egypt is prepared to take all necessary measures under the UN Charter to defend the interests of its people.
Ethiopia started the construction of the GERD in 2011 and began filling the dam in 2020, expecting the giant hydropower project to generate more than 5,000 megawatts of electricity upon completion. However, Egypt and Sudan are concerned that it might reduce their shares of Nile water.
Tripartite negotiations between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan over the past decade failed to reach a binding agreement on the rules for filling and operating the GERD.
In its letter to the UNSC, Cairo accused Addis Ababa of only seeking to establish a fait accompli without any political will to reach a real solution. ■
