CAIRO, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed on Monday the latest developments pertaining to the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
The GERD, which is built by Ethiopia on the Nile River, is causing spat between Cairo and Addis Ababa.
In a statement, the Egyptian foreign ministry said the two top diplomats tackled the meeting the U.S. administration has called for in Washington, where the foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, the three countries affected by the dam, are supposed to discuss the resumption of the technical negotiations on the filling and operation of the dam.
"Pompeo expressed the U.S. administration's understanding of the importance of this issue and the need to reach a fair agreement that would achieve the interests of all three countries," the statement said.
The last round of talks on the GERD held by Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Oct. 5 failed to reach a solution, with Egypt blaming Ethiopia for "rejecting all proposals that would help Egypt avoid serious harms caused by the construction of the dam."
Egypt, a downstream Nile Basin country that relies on the Nile for its fresh water, is concerned that the construction of the GERD might affect its 55.5-billion-cubic-meter annual share of the river water.
Ethiopia started building the dam in 2011, which is expected to produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity and become the largest hydropower dam in Africa upon completion.
On Thursday, Egyptian presidency announced that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed have agreed to immediately resume the work of the technical committee of the GERD.
Both leaders met on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit held in the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi last week.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian foreign ministry said that Shoukry and Pompeo also addressed overall regional topics, including Syria and efforts to confront all forms of terrorism.
