CAIRO: Egypt’s Prime Minister Essam Sharaf declared on Monday that Egypt will officially recognize the existence of newly formed South Sudan. Sharaf’s four-day diplomatic mission to Sudan is the first of its kind since he was appointed Prime Minister by Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in early March.
Sharaf traveled to both North and South Sudan, recently split after a popular referendum, following North Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s recent visit to Cairo. Bashir declared he will send 5,000 cows to Cairo as a thank-you to Sharaf for receiving him in Egypt as the first leader to visit the country after the revolution.
The aim of Sharaf’s visit to Sudan is to discuss diplomatic relations with both newly formed South Sudan and neighboring Sudan. As a main topic in discussion that brings closer Egyptian and Sudanese regional interests, there will be talks around water supplies in the Nile basin.
The exploitation of Nile waters is still regulated by two agreements signed in 1928 and 1959, assigning Egypt some 90 percent of the total share.
Sudan and Egypt have recently refused to put their signature under the so-called Entebbe Agreement, stipulated by East African countries Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda, that would reset a fairer share of water supplies.
Egypt’s economy is tightly knit to agricultural production and irrigation systems. Moreover, the country’s energetic autonomy almost completely depends on the Aswan dam, exploiting Nile water to produce more than 2.1 gigawatts of power.
0 comments:
Post a Comment