Putin Pledges $2 Billion to Kyrgyzstan

Russia will invest $2 billion in former Soviet Kyrgyzstan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, after meeting his Kyrgyz counterpart ahead of a regional summit.

Central Asia holds huge supplies of untapped energy resources and the West, Russia, China and Iran have being eyeing ways of developing them and transporting them to world markets. Kyrgyzstan also hosts both a Russian and a U.S. air base.

"We need only good projects," Putin said. "We must take all necessary steps to fund these projects."

Kyrgyzstan lags behind Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in terms of enery resources, but has considerable reserves of gold.

On Thursday leaders from Russia, China and four of the ex-Soviet Central Asian states meet to work out how to strengthen an alliance, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, aimed at maintaining strategic control over the region.