Egypt's Sisi Arrives İn Ethiopia

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi arrived Thursday in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for his first-ever visit to the Horn of Africa nation.



During his visit, al-Sisi will attend the 24th African Union summit – due to kick off Friday – and hold talks with several African leaders, diplomatic sources said.



Ethiopia and Egypt are trying to narrow their differences over the former's multibillion-dollar hydroelectric dam project currently being built on the Nile River.



The two countries agreed to resume tripartite talks – which also included downstream country Sudan – after al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn met in Equatorial Guinea last summer.



Meetings of a tripartite technical committee, set up in 2011, resumed last August after an eight-month hiatus due to ongoing differences between Cairo and Addis Ababa.



In September, the tripartite committee decided to hire research firms to study the anticipated trans-boundary and environmental impact of the Nile dam.



Egypt fears the dam will negatively affect its share of water from the Nile, its only source of water.



Ethiopia, for its part, says the project is indispensible for its own national development needs and the economic welfare of its growing population.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Addis Ababa