Kazakhstan to join Abraham Accords

• US President Donald Trump announced that Kazakhstan will join the Abraham Accords to have normalised relations with Israel.

• The announcement came after Trump said he had held a call with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on November 6.

• The US and Kazakhstan intend to hold a signing ceremony to officially mark this significant decision.

• Kazakhstan already has full diplomatic relations and economic ties with Israel, meaning the move would be largely symbolic.

Abraham Accords

• The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain established ties with Israel in September 2020 under the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords. 

• Morocco established ties with Israel later the same year.

• On January 6, 2021, Sudan signed the Abraham Accords Declaration.

• The four countries were the first Arab States to establish public ties with Israel since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

• The four countries signed agreements to establish full diplomatic relations and set out plans to advance economic, security, and other ties.

• These ties were often motivated by a shared concern about Iran’s regional influence and nuclear programme, as well as a desire to solidify ties with the US, which brokered the Accords.

• Since their signing, economic and some defence ties between Israel and the Abraham Accords states have deepened.

• Israeli leaders and the US administration also set out expectations that the Accords would be expanded to other states, contributing to the Middle East peace process.

• The Palestinian Authority criticised the Accords for their lack of focus on a two-State solution to the conflict.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)