On November 6, President Trump announced that Kazakhstan would join the Abraham Accords. This makes it the first country with preexisting diplomatic ties with Israel to join. The announcement raised eyebrows among Washington analysts, largely because the two countries already had ties and because Kazakhstan is not in the Middle East or North Africa, like the previous signatories. On the same day, the C5+1—the Central Asian nations plus the United States—convened in the White House for the first time. There, President Trump noted that “one of the key items on our agenda is critical minerals,” emphasizing a focus on broadening “our critical mineral supply chains.” Notably, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Kazakhstan either produces or has reserves of nearly half of the sixty critical minerals vital to U.S. national security. As the U.S.-China competition heats up, critical minerals—and both sides’ access to them—are increasingly at the center of the competition. The United States and Kazakhstan, like many countries, are currently heavily reliant on China’s role in the critical minerals supply chain. Among the many benefits of Kazakhstan’s addition to the Abraham Accords, the arrangement opens up the possibility for Washington and its partners to diversify their critical minerals supply chain in an effort to become less dependent on China.
Kazakhstan and the Abraham Accords in the Critical Minerals Hedging Game | The Washington Institute
