FILE – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Commonwealth of Independent States summit at the Palace of the Nation in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, October 10, 2025.
Vladimir Smirnov/AP via Sputnik Kremlin Pool
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Vladimir Smirnov/AP via Sputnik Kremlin Pool
WASHINGTON — Kazakhstan is set to join the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab and Muslim-majority countries, a symbolic move aimed at revitalizing an initiative that was a hallmark of President Donald Trump's first administration.
The action, announced Thursday, is largely symbolic because Kazakhstan has had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1992 and is geographically much further away from Israel than the other Abraham Accord countries – Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.
These countries agreed to normalize relations with Israel by joining the agreements, which is what Kazakhstan did shortly after gaining independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The move was first confirmed to The Associated Press by three U.S. officials, who insisted on anonymity and detailed plans that have not yet been made public. Hours later, Trump posted on his social media site that he had “a great conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev” and that Kazakhstan was “the first country of my second term to join the Abraham Accords, the first of many.”
Trump called Kazakhstan's addition “an important step forward in building bridges around the world” and said “more countries are lining up to embrace peace and prosperity through my Abraham Accords.”
The signing ceremony will soon make it official, Trump, and “there are many more countries trying to join this POWER club.”
“Much remains to be done in bringing countries together for stability and growth—real progress, real results,” Trump wrote. “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”
Trump, a Republican, made the announcement shortly before the start of a summit he hosted Thursday night with the leaders of five Central Asian countries, including Kazakhstan.
Despite their previous long-standing ties, US officials have said Kazakhstan's participation in the Abraham Accords with Israel is important because it will improve their bilateral trade and cooperation, and have signaled that Israel is becoming less isolated internationally, especially after widespread criticism and protests over its handling of the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
One official said Trump's nascent peace plan for Gaza has “completely changed the paradigm” and that many countries are now ready to “move toward the circle of peace” he has created.
The official said specific areas of expanded Israeli-Kazakh cooperation would include defense, cybersecurity, energy and food technology, although all were the subject of previous bilateral agreements dating back to the mid-1990s.
Ahead of Thursday night's summit between Trump and Central Asian leaders, Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a working breakfast with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, although the State Department made no mention of anything related to Israel.
Rubio and Tokayev “discussed expanding opportunities for commercial trade and investment, as well as expanding cooperation with Kazakhstan in the fields of energy, technology and infrastructure,” the department said in a statement.
