Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr on Monday started a tour of six Nile Basin nations, Egyptian diplomatic sources said.
Amr and his delegation will focus on boosting economic and political relations between Egypt and these countries and a potential increase in trade volume, the sources said.
On the trip, Amr will visit Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and South Sudan.
The delegation will discuss ways to improve Egyptian investment in those countries by resolving issues hindering investment and trade. It will also discuss private and public sector support for international tenders of projects carried out by the countries, the sources said.
Amr will meet with senior leaders and officials about regional issues and ways to reach a consensus among the Basin countries about issues that were suspended during previous negotiations about the Nile Basin framework agreement.
Egypt hopes to improve relations with Basin countries, which signed an agreement to redistribute Nile water.
Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya signed the Entebbe agreement in April 2010, which stipulated the redistribution of Nile water, despite Egypt and Sudan's boycott of the agreement. Egypt then announced that the agreement is non-binding.
Burundi joined the agreement in March 2011, making it more likely for the agreement to go into effect.
Egypt says it will not accept an agreement about water redistribution that doesn’t guarantee its historical rights.
According to an agreement signed with Sudan in 1959, Egypt's share of Nile water is estimated at 51 billion square meters annually, while Sudan's share is estimated at 18 billion square meters.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
