Richard Pollock

While we’re all focused on the Middle East, I would like to momentarily shift your attention to a remarkable political revolution that’s taking place across the Third World.

As it turns out, these seismic changes are resulting in decisive positive implications for both Israel and for the United States. Today, a worldwide conservative political wave is underway. This movement seeks free markets, democratic rights – and new international alliances in support of Israel.

Of course, if you read the Western press, it appears the world is firmly against Israel and the United States.

However, if you look closely, you’l see pro-American sentiment is sweeping throughout the Third World – a place that used to be the playground for Leftwing parties and communist governments.

These seismic changes are occurring in what Western international diplomats once quaintly called the “non-aligned movement.”

Although the name suggested independent-minded governments, in fact the overwhelming majority of these Third World governments were antagonistic towards the West. Most “non-aligned” countries tilted towards the Soviet Union and after the fall of the USSR, these Leftist governments have been relentless propagandists for Russia and China .

As far as Israel was concerned, most of these governments also served unsurprisingly as echo chambers for Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

But a new political shift is underway. A conservative movement is sweeping throughout the Third World. It’s causing a number of formerly Leftwing governments to re-establish and/or deepen their relations with both Israel and with the United States.

These seismic political changes are leaving behind Leftwing establishment Europe. And the timidity expressed in European capitals towards Iran now may be finally sealing their fate. The continent is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

It’s also fascinating that while Europe has rhetorically tried to appear anti-Israel, the inconvenient truth is that the continent was the single largest purchaser of Israeli defense goods in 2025, buying 36% of the total Israeli military exports in 2025, or $6.9 billion, according to the Times of Israel.

The Times wrote that “Annual Israeli arms sales reached a new record in 2025, for the fifth consecutive year, up nearly 30 percent compared to the previous year.”

So for a moment, let’s forget about the anti-Israel and anti-U.S headlines in the Western press. Instead, let’s examine the real world political tremors now underway throughout the Third World.

These changes are particularly visible throughout Latin America. Just look at the elections in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Each in their own way have been part of a sustained conservative shift on their continent.

And, each Latin American country, in their own way, have demonstrated new warmth towards Jerusalem.

In Central and South Asia, we see the same political changes. Pro-American and pro-Israeli policies are emerging in India, and in the Muslim-majority Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan also now tilt toward Washington. Significantly, Armenia has signed an historic 99-year lease with the United States for a new trade route that permanently blocks Iran any land access to Europe. Iran is furious over its now, unnavigable route.

But first, let’s return to Latin America. The political earthquakes there aren’t related to Trump’s squeeze of Venezuela or Cuba.

But the election of Argentine’s free market president Javier Milei and of Chile’s José Antonio Kast have been breathtaking.

Milei smashed the old Peronist repressive regime with his election in 2023. In a few short years, he’s reduced Argentina’s 32% inflation rate to 2.6%.

Most dramatically, it is Milei who is the author of the “Isaacs Accord,” a parallel initiative to the Abraham Accords. Since taking office, he’s traveled to Israel three times and visited the United States 17 times.

Milei is the darling of free marketeers everywhere. In one of his first overseas visits as newly elected president, Milei gave a scorching speech at the elite Davos summit. He viciously attacked the socialist models adopted by Western governments.

“We’re here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world. Rather, they are the root cause,” he told the leaders of the West, including elite American billionaires and corporate leaders.

Chile’s President Kast, meanwhile, has completely reversed the harsh anti-Israel, pro-Hamas policies of Chile’s former Leftist President Gabriel Boric. Last month Kast told Israel’s President Issac Herzog that Chile would be returning its ambassador to Israel, reversing Boric’s harsh anti-Israel policies.

Boric served as one of the most virulent anti-Israel leaders in all of Latin America. He took many diplomatic measures against the Jewish state, including backing international genocide cases against Israel and pushing for arms embargoes against Jerusalem. He recalled his ambassador from Israel only a month after the October 7 Hamas massacre.

And this week, another free-market win was recorded in far-Left Colombia where a tough-talking conservative, Abelardo de la Espriella, came in first in the country’s primary. Espirella is called El Tigre, or “The Tiger.” He says he’s molding himself as an international leader close to that of Donald Trump.

Election observers believe “The Tiger” will prevail in the general election, scheduled for this month. Espriella’s win also coincides with the election of tough-on-crime conservative leaders in El Salvador, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay.

All of this signals a growing backlash across Latin America against Leftist governments and political parties that were born when Cuban guerrilla Che Guevara called for world revolution.

Significant changes, however, also are quickly changing in Central and South Asia. For the most part, the Western media downplayed the precedent-setting historic visits last week to India and to Armenia by U.S. Secretary Marco Rubio.

India’s geopolitical role is dramatically changing. India once was a firm Russian-aligned ally. It was India, after all, that thumbed its nose at Europe and the Biden administration when New Delhi continued to buy huge amounts of Russian oil after Moscow invaded Ukraine.

Further, more than fifty of India’s naval warships were built in Russian shipyards.

And India is currently serving as the chair of the Russian-Chinese axis called the BRICS coalition. New Delhi is officially assuming the rotating presidency of the Russian-Chinese bloc.

BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa after its original founders. The radical alliance was designed to create a new political and economic trading system that would compete with Western economies and eventually crush the U.S. dollar.

As Biden’s foreign policy alienated long-term allies, BRICS also found fertile ground with previous pro-Western countries.

Saudi Arabia, and the moderate United Arab Emirates also joined the BRICS alliance.

Last week it was instructive to see that Rubio met with India’s top officials. In a slap at the Iranians, Prime Minister Modi called for open international waterways. The foreign policy reversal was dramatic as New Delhi is the chairman of the BRICS coalition.

But one of the most strategic victories for the Trump administration was in ending the 25-year war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The big news is that as part of the new peace, Armenia signed a 99-year lease with the United States for a 27-mile trade route to Europe that borders the Central Asian country. The Washington Examiner wrote last week, “This is a seismic change in regional politics. Moscow had long served as the primary security guarantor for Armenia, keeping the country’s trade and energy dependency tightly bound to Russian networks.”

The new route is being referred to as the “Contemporary Silk Road” that can provide new prosperity to both Armenia and Azerbaijan – while blocking important Russian and especially Iranian trade.

Most of Trump’s Western critics, including the Western press, ridiculed and ignored the agreement because the new route was named the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity or TRIPP.”

The route not only stops the Iranian Mullahs in their tracks trade wise, but it creates a secure, Western-backed pathway through the South Caucasus, bypassing Iranian territory and now deterring Russian influence.

Rahana Sherin, writing for the Delhi-based International Dialogue and Diplomacy Foundation, observed that Iran and Russia deplored this agreement as it economically cripples Iran along with the Russians.

“Iran sees it as the construction of a new, contemporary “Silk Road” that purposefully skirts its borders, making it feel excluded and omitted. The thought of America holding development rights and leasing this land for up to 99 years feels like a hostile power establishing a long-term presence right on its northern doorstep,” says Sherin.

And one of the biggest changes in the Central Asia is the Muslim-majority country of Kazakhstan

making it feel excluded and omitted. The thought of America holding development rights and leasing this land for up to 99 years feels like a hostile power establishing a long-term presence right on its northern doorstep,” say

And one of the biggest changes in the Central Asia is the Muslim-majority country of Kazakhstan.

Importantly, Kazakhstan, a Muslim-majority country of 20 million people on the Central Asian steppe, has formally joined the Abraham Accords with Israel. It’s one of the most significant diplomatic developments in Israel’s engagement with Central Asia.

The announcement came last November as President Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev agreed to the new policy.

The liberal Atlantic Council called Kazakhstan an “unexpected player” to join the Abraham Accords. The Council said Kazakhstan “will become the first post-Soviet state to join the pact with Israel” and “hints at a broader US strategy linking the Middle East and Eurasia.”

It’s further interesting to note that the White House is broadening its entire relationship to all of Central Asia. Last November, the Trump administration organized its U.S.-Central Asia summit. Officials from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan arrived eagerly at the White House. All were former Soviet states.

As the liberal Council on Foreign Relations wrote last November, “The five Central Asian countries hold large deposits of copper, gold, and rare earths, and produce roughly half the world’s uranium, a key component in the production of nuclear fuel. The agreements mark a step toward competing with China and Russia, which currently play major roles in the region’s critical minerals sector.”

Africa is tilting back to Washington and towards Israel too. And it goes beyond Israel’s decision to extend diplomatic relations to tiny Somaliland.

In Uganda, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the Army Chief, has publicly aligned himself with Israel, even going so far as to pledge troops to the Jewish state if needed

South Sudan is a staunch ally of Israel. It was the third nation to sign the Abraham Accords.

The country feels deep solidarity with Israel. “For many Evangelical Christians in South Sudan, the Bible represents a major – if not the main – source of inspiration. In this instance, Israel is not only the Holy Land but also the only country in the world which provided help to South Sudan in its hour of need,” wrote the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Affairs way back in 1999.

Kenya’s president has openly voiced strong support for Jerusalem and historically is one of Israel’s closest African allies, marked by deep security and counter-terrorism cooperation.

Kenya also serves as a major diplomatic anchor for Israel. It is the headquarters of the African Union and has deep agricultural links with Israel.

And in 2024, 40 African parliamentarians from 20 African countries signed the “Addis Ababa Resolution,” which recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The legislators came from such diverse African countries as Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria and South Sudan

”We are gathered to build on the Abraham Accords, and as children of Abraham pursue peace, progress and prosperity,” said Erik Selle, the founder of the Africa-Israel Initiative and leader of Norway’s Christian nationalist Conservative Party, when outlining the purpose of the summit, according to the New Arab.

In effect, we are witnessing a new set of alliances that embrace democratic and free market values. And during these turbulent times, many nations are now demonstrating the courage to support Washington and Israel.

Welcome to a new world.