Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister for African affairs Mohamed Edris praised the recent summit of Nile Basin countries, saying that it managed to achieve positive results. He stressed that the summit aimed to achieve the common interests between the countries of the Nile Basin and to achieve consensus over the controversial issues.
He added, in a statement to “Arabs Today”, that the relations between Egypt and Africa is not limited to the Nile, saying that the relations with African partners have their social, cultural and economic dimensions. He stressed that the latest meeting came as a result of Egyptian keenness to contact with the other countries of Nile Basin.
He added that the meeting came in the framework of the efforts exerted by the African leaders to unify the continent’s countries during the coming period and to resume coordination over the controversial issues.
He revealed that the Nile Basin countries held meetings before the summit to formulate a common vision to be discussed during the summit, saying that these meetings performed a major role to push forward the summit to achieve its goals. He stressed the importance of the water issue for the Egyptian people, saying that the Egyptian government agreed with Ethiopian to deal with the issue cautiously.
He stressed that the "historic" gathering will "open the way to exploring broad areas of cooperation in many development areas beyond the field of water."
During this week's meetings, he added, Egypt aims to "work towards bringing the views and positions on the Nile water closer by focusing on prospects for cooperation and achieving common goals, as well as expanding the scope of cooperation ... to include cultural and security cooperation and political coordination.
He continued that said Egypt hopes the upcoming summit will "come up with a common vision to re-launch the initiative based on the principle of the mutual interests of all countries."