By Pesach Benson • november 6, 2025
Jerusalem, 6 November, 2025 (TPS-IL) — U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff announced on Thursday that a new country was joining the Abraham Accords. Although he did not specify which country, media reports indicate that it is Kazakhstan, which has had diplomatic relations with Israel for over 30 years. A formal announcement is due to be made on Thursday night.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is currently in Washington for a summit of leaders from the C5+1 countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and the United States.
Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates signed the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords in April 2020., normalizing ties with the Jewish state. Morocco joined the accords in November of that year as part of an agreement in which the U.S. recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Sudan signed the Abraham Accords in January 2021 as part of an arrangement with the U.S. to be removed from the list of countries designated as state sponsors of terror. Unlike the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco, however, Sudan has not taken steps to normalize ties, such as exchanging embassies. Relations are said to focus on quiet security and intelligence cooperation.
Israel and Kazakhstan established diplomatic relations in 1992, shortly after the Central Asian country gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan is a secular Muslim state that is tolerant of its religious and ethnic minorities, including Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Tatars, and a Jewish community estimated at between 3,000 and 10,000.
Israeli–Kazakh ties focus on education, medicine, agriculture, and technology, as well as defense and security collaboration. A number of Kazakh farmers and scientists have received training in Israel.
In recent years, reports have periodically speculated that countries such as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Libya, Tunisia, Bangladesh, and Malaysia might join the accords.
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