Saturday October 19 2019
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (left) meets with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, Egypt on December 11, 2017. PHOTO | REUTERS
In Summary
- In picking to mediate between Egypt and Ethiopia over Nile dam, Russia has taken on what could be one of its trickiest diplomatic forays yet.
- The mediation will be its first foray into what is technically not a political or military showdown.
- The Russian Federation and the Soviet Union before it have had a bad experience in mediating conflicts in the Horn of Africa.
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By PETER MUNAITA
In picking to mediate between Egypt and Ethiopia over the latest row over the filling up of the latter’s $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Russia has taken on what could be one of its trickiest diplomatic forays yet.
Despite Moscow being the prime mover of three globally sensitive peace negotiations in Syria, Serbia-Kosovo and Afghanistan, this will be its first foray into what is technically not a political or military showdown.
It is a resource war which the Nile Basin Initiative—of 11 Nile riparian countries in eastern Africa—have so far preferred to handle regionally with the support of the World Bank.
he Russian Federation and the Soviet Union before it have had a bad experience in mediating conflicts in the Horn of Africa, the most notable being the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea before quietly letting the Us take the lead.
That dispute was seismically concluded last year with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, 43, signing a peace agreement with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, 77, that earned the former the $934,000-worth Nobel Peace Prize on October 10 this year.
Despite the odds Russia President Vladimir Putin has placed diplomacy as the third pillar of the federation’s foreign relations after counting on military ties to spread its influence across the world for ages.