Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said Thursday at talks in Cairo they were opposed to any "conflict" over the sharing of Nile waters. Sisi said that Desalegn's visit was "a clear sign for our peoples and the entire world of our political will and determination to overcome all obstacles" between the two countries.
The Nile should serve as "a source of cohesion... and development, not of conflict" with Ethiopia, which is building a controversial dam that has raised Egyptian concerns over water supplies, he said. "We agreed that we must make sure that this great river never becomes an object of competition, mistrust and conflict," Desalegn told a joint news conference. Sisi said Ethiopia was not aiming "to harm the interests of Egypt", while reiterating Cairo's call for the World Bank to serve as a neutral interlocutor between the two countries on technical issues related to the Nile.