14 April 2010
Sharm El-Shiekh, Egypt - Seven out of the nine Nile Basin Initiative member countries have reiterated their position to move forward with the signing of the Cooperative Framework
Agreement (CFA) based on the decisions of the Extraordinary Nile Council of Ministers (Nile-COM) Meeting held in May 2009 in Kinshasa.

During the extraordinary Nile-COM Meeting held on 13th April 2010 in Sharm El Sheikh,
Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda agreed that “with regard to the signing procedure, we should open the Cooperative Framework Agreement from 14th May, 2010 and it shall remain open for not more than one year”. Egypt and Sudan rejected this position saying that it “reflects only the views of the seven States.” Instead, Egypt and Sudan proposed that all Nile Basin countries issue a presidential declaration to launch the River Nile Basin Commission as negotiations to reach a comprehensive agreement on the CFA continue.

They also proposed that modalities of the Commission be elaborated by the Nile Basin countries, taking into consideration the relevant provisions in the draft CFA. The Extra ordinary Nile Council of Ministers (Nile-COM) Meeting was convened to hear the report of the 3rd joint Nile-Technical Advisory and Negotiators Committee and make final deliberations on the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA). The 1st joint meeting was held in Kampala, Uganda in September 2009, and the 2nd in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in December 2009. The joint committee was formed as a result of the agreement of the 17th Nile-COM meeting held in Alexandria, Egypt in July 2009.

This meeting is the latest in a series of negotiations on the Cooperative Framework Agreement, a process which began in 1995.

The Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA):
The CFA is an attempt by the Nile River Basin countries to come up with a legal framework to guide the use, development, protection, conservation and anagement of the River Nile Basin and its resources.

The CFA will enable the Nile Basin Initiative to transform into a permanent River Nile Basin
Commission and will facilitate its legal recognition in the member countries as well as regional
and international organizations such as the African Union. It is important to note that the choice of entering an international treaty constitutes a political decision made by sovereign governments at the highest level and global experience has demonstrated that agreements of this nature can take decades to reach conclusion. Cases in point include the Senegal River Basin in Africa, the Columbia River in North America, or the Mekong in Asia —have taken decades to work out.