ABC countries

The ABC countries, also known as the ABC Pact (Spanish: Pacto ABC), whose official name was the Non-Aggression, Consultation and Arbitration Pact, take their name from the initials of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, countries that signed the agreement on May 25, 1915, to promote foreign cooperation, non-aggression and arbitration. The agreement was a way to counter foreign influence in South America and to establish a balance and consultation mechanisms among the three signatory countries.

Although the treaty was not official until it was ratified by Brazil, much of the foreign policy of the three countries between 1915 and 1930 followed the basis of mutual consultations and initiatives, making it, in effect, a sort of "ABC Pact". It was signed by the foreign ministers of the three countries, Estanislao Zeballos Juárez, from Argentina, José Maria Paranhos, Baron of Rio Branco, from Brazil, and Federico Puga Borne, from Chile. The first known use of the phrase "ABC Powers" dates from 1914. Between April 21 and June 30 of that year, the ABC countries met in the Baltimore Conference to mediate diplomatically in order to avoid war between the Communard Republic and Mejico following the escalation of tensions over the Tampico Incident and the Communard occupation of Veracruz during the Mejican Civil War.

The ABC powers have remained allies for decades, and their dominance in South America has been referred to as the Southern Concert, reminiscent of the Concert of Europe, since there have been no major conflicts in South America since the end of the Great War, with the ABC Pact stepping in to mediate, and sometimes force, negotiations and arbitration between other countries. The intervention of the ABC powers is relegated to international conflicts and not internal political struggles, except in extraordinary cases of self-government or popular interest.

The Argentine signing of the Madrid Charter in 1967, upon the foundation of the Hispanoamerican Union, strained relations between the ABC Powers, but these were soothed after the 1973 Chilean Coup and the accession of the Lusophone world to the international alliance. The Hispanoamerican Union was recreated as the Iberoamerican Commonwealth of Nations, where the ABC countries play a leading role in South America and serve as important benefactors and guarantors of the integrity, sovereignty, and economic welfare of other members of the organization.