CAIRO, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's foreign and water ministers said on Wednesday that while Cairo seeks cooperation with other Nile Basin countries, its water security must not be compromised.
In a joint statement, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and Water Minister Hani Sewilam rejected "unilateral actions on the Nile," a reference to Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), saying any construction on the river must comply with international law and be agreed by all riparian states.
The statement followed remarks by Abdelatty last week describing water security as an "existential" issue for Egypt's over 110 million people and warning that Cairo would not accept new dams on the Nile without a prior legal agreement.
Downstream Egypt and Sudan have repeatedly raised concerns about their water shares since Ethiopia began building the GERD in 2011. Years of trilateral talks have failed to yield a binding agreement on the dam's filling and operation. Ethiopia began the dam's official inauguration in September 2025. ■