Thursday February 26, 2026
An Ethiopian flag flies next to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile during its inauguration in Guba in Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region on September 9, 2025 [Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]
Egypt on Tuesday evening denied reports claiming it was prepared to grant Ethiopia maritime access to the Red Sea in return for flexibility from Addis Ababa over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a long-running source of tension between the two countries.
According to Egypt’s state news agency, Middle East News Agency, an official source categorically rejected circulating “reports that Egypt is ready to grant Ethiopia maritime access to the Red Sea in exchange for Ethiopian flexibility regarding the dam”.
The source stressed that “such reports are entirely baseless and unfounded.”
He reaffirmed that “Egypt’s stance on water security and the GERD remains firm and unchanged.”
Egypt, the source added, “continues to adhere to international law, reject unilateral measures, safeguard its water share, and preserve the full rights of the two downstream countries, in line with established principles of international law.”
The source added that governance and security of the Red Sea are restricted to countries bordering the sea, describing it as a strategic waterway directly linked to the national security of those states.
“No other states have the right to participate in any arrangements or understandings concerning the Red Sea,”, he added— in an apparent reference to Ethiopia, which is landlocked and does not border the sea.
Officials in Addis Ababa have repeatedly spoken of Ethiopia’s need for access to the Red Sea, while Egypt has consistently rejected the presence of any non-littoral state in Red Sea arrangements.