Military expenditures - dollar figure: $12 million (FY99)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1% (FY99)
@Kyrgyzstan:Transnational Issues
Disputes - international: territorial dispute with Tajikistan on southwestern boundary in Isfara Valley area; periodic target of Islamic terrorists from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan
Illicit drugs: limited illicit cultivator of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for CIS consumption; limited government eradication program; increasingly used as transshipment point for illicit drugs to Russia and Western Europe from Southwest Asia
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LAOS
@Laos:Introduction
Background: In 1975 the communist Pathet Lao took control of the government, ending a six-century-old monarchy. Initial closer ties to Vietnam and socialization were replaced with a gradual return to private enterprise, an easing of foreign investment laws, and the admission into ASEAN in 1997.
@Laos:Geography