Kazakhstan, which already has full ties with Israel, to join Abraham Accords: Report

Kazakhstan will announce on Thursday that it is joining the Abraham Accords, according to several US media reports, a largely symbolic move as the Central Asian republic already has diplomatic ties with Israel.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Thursday that a new country would join the accords, under which four Arab nations have normalised ties with Israel.

Kazakhstan's president, Kassym-Jomart Kemeluly Tokayev, is visiting the White House later on Thursday and is expected to announce the move alongside US President Donald Trump. 

Kazakhstan established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992, shortly after it gained independence from the Soviet Union. The two countries already have embassies in each other's respective countries. 

Kazakhstan is a Muslim majority state with about 70 percent of the population identifying as Muslim. It also has a substantial number of Orthodox Christians. Tsarist Russia conquered the former Soviet state in the 19th century.

Religion in public life is somewhat muted in Kazakhstan compared to other Muslim majority countries, partly as a legacy of the Soviet Union.

It’s unclear what impact Kazakhstan’s decision to join the accords will have.

The 2020 agreements were brokered during the first Trump administration, which saw Morocco, Bahrain, and the UAE establish formal relations with Israel - all countries which did not already have official ties with Israel at the time.

The US framed the Abraham Accords as a historic breakthrough, but advocates of the Palestinian cause viewed it as a betrayal.

Morocco, Bahrain, and the UAE all enjoyed covert ties with Israel for decades. Kazakhstan’s inclusion in the accords makes it the first country with official diplomatic relations with Israel to join.

The US framed the decision of the UAE and Bahrain to join the accords in part as a move to bolster defences against Iran. At the same time, Morocco and the Gulf States wanted to bolster economic ties with Israel, particularly in technology.

Kazakhstan already has public economic links to Israel, and the two countries' ties are considered stable.