Reaching Out to Central Asia, Including Kazakhstan
The Donald Trump administration is considering adding Azerbaijan and other countries to the "Abraham Accords," an initiative aimed at reshaping the order in the Middle East.
According to foreign media reports on August 1 (local time), if the dialogue between the Trump administration's second term and Azerbaijan proceeds smoothly, such an agreement could be reached within several months or even weeks.
However, the Trump administration maintains that Azerbaijan can only be included in the Abraham Accords if it ends its armed conflict with neighboring Armenia and signs a peace agreement.
The Abraham Accords refer to a series of agreements brokered by the United States that established diplomatic relations between Arab countries and Israel. During the first Trump administration, from 2020 to 2021, four countries?United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan?agreed to normalize relations with Israel through U.S. mediation.
The Trump administration's second term is also trying to include other Arab countries such as Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. However, these efforts are facing difficulties due to the Israel-Hamas war.
Azerbaijan and the five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan) are different from the countries previously included in the accords. Although they are Muslim-majority nations, they are not Arab countries. Since gaining independence from the former Soviet Union, they have maintained diplomatic relations with Israel continuously since 1992.
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