Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked country in Central Asia, lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir mountain ranges and bordered by Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China, with Bishkek as its capital and a population exceeding 7.4 million, mostly ethnic Kyrgyz with notable Uzbek and Russian minorities. The region fell under Mongol rule in the thirteenth century, later came under the Kokand Khanate, and was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1876; after the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was established in 1936, Kyrgyzstan declared independence from the USSR on 31 August 1991. Its government has shifted between presidential and parliamentary systems, moving to a parliamentary structure after the Tulip Revolution before returning to a presidential framework in 2021. Kyrgyzstan belongs to the United Nations, joined the World Trade Organization in 1998, and joined the Eurasian Economic Union in 2015. Its developing economy relies substantially on re-exporting Chinese goods and gold production, and the country ranks 117th on the Human Development Index.