CAIRO, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi met on Tuesday with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni in Cairo where they discussed mutual cooperation in various fields as well as the issue of the shared Nile River water, the Egyptian presidential spokesman said in a statement.
Egypt and Uganda are two of the eleven Nile River basin countries including upstream Ethiopia, which is currently constructing a giant dam that raises Egypt's concerns as a downstream country about its annual share of the river water.
"The two presidents discussed the Nile water issue, and they both agreed on the importance of enhancing cooperation between the Nile basin states to achieve sustainable use of the water resources in favor of the common interests of the peoples of upstream and downstream countries," Egypt's presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said in the statement.
Upstream Ethiopia and downstream Sudan eye massive benefits from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), while Egypt is concerned it might affect its 55.5-billion-cubic-meter annual share of the Nile River water.
Ethiopia and Sudan repeatedly reiterated commitment not to harm Egypt's water interests with the GERD construction.
Sisi and Museveni also discussed ways to enhance economic and political cooperation and coordinate anti-terror efforts between the two sides.
"President Sisi welcomed the consensus of views of both countries regarding different political issues, hailing the Ugandan president's efforts to reach political settlements for the crises facing the continent and to boost anti-terrorism efforts in Africa," Rady said.
The two presidents also witnessed the signing ceremony of a number of deals and memorandums of understanding, including a deal to build a solar power plant in Uganda and MoUs in the industrial and agricultural fields.
Uganda and Egypt have been ranked respectively as the second and third fastest growing economies worldwide and the first two in Africa in the coming decade, according to a recent report from the Center for International Development at Harvard University (CID).
The CID's Global Growth Projections report released last week expected Uganda's annual economic growth to hit 7.46 percent and Egypt's to reach 6.63 percent in the coming decade.
