Edwin Musoni
24 February 2008
Kigali — The Ethiopian President Grima Wolde Giorgis has expressed frustration over the delayed signing of the Nile Cooperative Legal Framework Agreement.
The Cooperative Framework calls for the establishment of a permanent Nile River Basin Commission through which countries will act together to manage and develop the resources of the Nile. Countries of the Nile are Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
The agreement must be adopted by all basin states and then ratified before entering into force as an international treaty. However, Egypt and Sudan have to date refused to approve the agreement.
Negotiations to institutionalise the Nile basin that have been on going for ten years are now thought to be in the final stages. All that remains is for all Heads of State to approve the agreement.
Speaking during the celebrations of the second Nile Day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, President Giorgis said: "we need to further deepen and broaden the cooperation process by being expedient in concluding the Cooperative Legal Framework Agreement which is critical to set up a permanent institution."
He added that only through deepening cooperation can the sustainability of people's lives and future be ensured.
"Only through cooperation would it be possible to leverage the comparative advantage of our natural and man-made resources have bestowed on us," Giorgis said. Once ratified, this historic agreement will be the first Nile Treaty to include all the states of the Nile River Basin.
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