President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi offered Egypt’s expertise in various fields to be used in Ethiopia, as well as its network of international and regional relations to reach mutual interests, in a Wednesday speech at the Ethiopian parliament.
Sisi, who announced a “new page” in the history of Egyptian-Ethiopian relations, emphasized the need for the two “major African states” counter problems facing life in their continent: global warming, desertification, diseases and dehydration.
The Egyptian president, whose speech was met with applause, expressed his hopes that cooperation between the two countries would “set an example” to the continent of Africa.
On Monday, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan inked an agreement on the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in Khartoum.
In his speech, Sisi called on Ethiopians to transcend pending issues in the agreement to include all Nile Basin states, and to seize the opportunity to lay the foundations of a better future together with Egypt to meet the aspiration of the two peoples.
Emphasizing that natural resources are available, he said that the waste of these resources should only be stopped to achieve prosperity, adding that the water shares of the Nile Basin states are “God-given.”
Sisi also tackled terrorism, reiterating that “terrorist organizations cannot be dealt with separately, given that they do not recognize borders.”
