President Donald Trump said Friday he is ready to restart U.S. mediation between Egypt and Ethiopia to resolve their long-running dispute over Nile River water sharing, posting a letter on his social media site addressed to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
“I am ready to restart U.S. mediation between Egypt and Ethiopia to responsibly resolve the question of ‘The Nile Water Sharing’ once and for all,” Trump wrote to el-Sissi. “My team and I understand the significance of the Nile River to Egypt and its people.”
The announcement revives a Washington-led diplomatic track that effectively collapsed in 2020 when Ethiopia withdrew from talks. Some discussions later continued under the African Union, though no binding agreement was reached.
The offer comes months after Ethiopia formally inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, or GERD, in fall 2025. Africa’s largest dam, GERD sits on the Blue Nile near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan and is designed to produce more than 5,000 megawatts of electricity — which Ethiopia says would double its generation capacity.
Ethiopia views the dam as a driver of economic development. Egypt has sharply opposed the project, arguing it will reduce the country’s access to Nile waters it relies on almost entirely for agriculture and to support more than 100 million people.
Tamim Khallaf, spokesperson for the Egyptian foreign ministry, said in September that Ethiopia built the dam “unilaterally without any prior notification, proper consultations, or consensus with downstream countries, thereby constituting a grave violation of international law and posing an existential threat.”
Trump has frequently claimed to have ended eight wars around the world — a characterization the Associated Press described as exaggerated. Egypt and Ethiopia appear on the list of conflicts Trump has said he resolved.
In remarks to Fox News host Sean Hannity last week, Trump acknowledged a continued conflict between Thailand and Cambodia and suggested it should count as an extra fraction. “I did put out eight wars, eight and a quarter, because, you know, Thailand and Cambodia started going at it again,” Trump said.