The new president of France Nicolas Sarkozy showed a friendly gesture to his colleague George Bush by deciding to redeploy his 6 Mirages from Dushanbe to Afghanistan.

Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck said the planes, based in Dushanbe, are to be transferred to Kandahar, in the troubled south of Afghanistan. Three of the planes — designed to support ground troops — are to be transferred in late September, while three others — equipped for surveillance missions — are slated to move in mid-October, Prazuck said.

What does it mean to Tajikistan? Basically nothing. These planes did not disturb anyone in Tajikistan except Russia, China and the local people in Dushanbe who live close to the airport where the planes are stationed. Obviously Russia and China do not like this airbase from geopolitical perspective and the local population in Dushanbe does not like the planes because of the awful noise they make when they take off. That’s it. Of course, there is also an issue of rent payment for the airbase. The state is going to lose a good source of income.