Egypt today agreed to a preliminary deal with Ethiopia on a new dam project that Cairo feared would hamper the flow of the Nile, the river on which it depends.
The leaders of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan all gathered in Khartoum to sign the agreement of principles on Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance dam project.
"I confirm the construction of the Renaissance Dam will not cause any damage to our three states and especially to the Egyptian people," Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said at the signing ceremony.
However, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said today that "this is a framework agreement and it will be completed".
"We have chosen cooperation, and to trust one another for the sake of development."
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir hailed the deal as "historic".
Egypt believes its "historic rights" to the Nile are guaranteed by treaties from 1929 and 1959 which grant it 87 per cent of the river's flow and the power to veto upstream projects.
In protest, Egypt withdrew from the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), a forum to discuss management and development of the region's resources, but later resumed participation.
Sudan, like Egypt, relies on Nile resources but has said it does not expect to be affected by Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance project.
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