Kazakhstan to join Abraham Accords as Trump seeks to reinvigorate initiative

JTA- Kazakhstan announced on Thursday, 6 November, that it would join the Abraham Accords ahead of a White House meeting by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev with United States President Donald Trump.

The move is reportedly aimed at reinvigorating the framework established during Trump’s first term linking Israel with Arab and Muslim-majority states after momentum stalled during the Gaza war.

While the step would expand the accords on paper, it won’t establish new ties: Israel and Kazakhstan have maintained full diplomatic and economic relations since 1992.

Tokayev is in Washington with four other Central Asian leaders as the US courts a region long influenced by Russia and increasingly engaged by China.

Trump has sought to grow the accords to include Saudi Arabia, though Riyadh continues to condition normalisation on a credible path to Palestinian statehood. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is slated to visit Washington later this month.

Kazakhstan served as a haven for Soviet Jews during the Holocaust. Today, its Jewish community of an estimated 2 500 is small, decentralised, and largely led by Chabad. During unrest in 2022, synagogues temporarily shut their doors as the community tried to steer clear of politics and waited out the violence.

A Jewish comedian, Sacha Baron Cohen, thrust the country into pop culture prominence in 2006 with the release of his mockumentary Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The movie portrayed the country as backward and antisemitic, and spurred a backlash from the government. Later, as the movie contributed to a tourism boost, the government embraced its association with Borat.