China has offered to lend $10bn to central Asian countries hit by the global economic crisis in a move that is likely to strengthen its influence in the resource-rich region.
Hu Jintao, the Chinese leader, yesterday told a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation in the Russian city of Yekaterinberg that Chinese credit support would help central Asian countries “make their own efforts to counter the shock of the international financial crisis”.
The loans are expected to smooth the way for China to win more energy deals in central Asia, where foreign powers, particularly Russia, are competing for natural resources.
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