Egypt stressed its belief in the importance of continuing spirit of cooperation, goodwill and common vision among the Nile Basin countries over the past fourteen years since the launch of the Nile Basin Initiative in Tanzania in 1999. It called for keeping this spirit of cooperation as the basis for common development efforts in future in the Nile Basin countries.

Egypt stressed the importance of sustaining this spirit of cooperation to be the driving force behind efforts that aim at resolving the outstanding issues within the legal and institutional framework of the Nile Basin Initiative.

This came during Egypt's speech delivered by the Egyptian Ambassador in Ethiopia Mohamed Idris on Friday 22/02/2013 before a two-day festival on Nile Day in Addis Ababa.

"On behalf of the people of Egypt, I send a message of friendship and hope to the Nile Basin peoples and we hope achieving a prosperous future in which the water plays an important role in the continuation and strengthening of cooperation and development among the Nile Basin countries as well as realization of economic integration and prosperity for everyone", the ambassador said.