On 24 March 2021, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Czech Republic in the Russian Federation Vítězslav Pivoňka visited JINR accompanied by Head of the Economy Department of the Czech Embassy Tomáš Hart, Assistant to the Ambassador Jan Jindřich, and 3rd Secretary David Vojtíšek.

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As part of the visit, Vítězslav Pivoňka took part in the opening ceremony of the Dubna Hotel (2, Moskovskaya street) repaired by the order of JINR by the Czech construction company ASARKO. Moreover, the Cezch diplomats visited the open multimedia exhibition being prepared in honour of the 65th jubilee of the Institute. The delegation visited the Laboratory of High Energy Physics where the guests were acquainted with the progress in the implementation of the JINR flagship mega-science project NICA. In addition, in the framework of the programme of the visit, an informal meeting of Vítězslav Pivoňka with representatives of the Czech national group in JINR was organized.

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In the JINR Directorate, JINR Director Academician Grigory Trubnikov, Scientific Leader of the Institute Academician Victor Matveev, Vice-Director Richard Lednický, and Head of the International Cooperation Department Dmitry Kamanin welcomed the high-level delegation. Deputy Plenipotentiary of the Czech Government in JINR Ivan Štekl and Head of the Czech national group in JINR Vratislav Chudoba also took part in the meeting.

Welcoming the high-ranking guest, JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov noted the active and fruitful participation of Czech scientists in the scientific and organizational activities of the Institute, as well as the considerable contribution of high-tech Czech enterprises to the development of the Institute’s scientific infrastructure. Vítězslav Pivoňka in his response welcomed Academician Trubnikov as Director of JINR and expressed gratitude to JINR ex-Director, Scientific Leader of the Institute Victor Matveev for many years of fruitful joint work.

Mr Ambassador expressed his deep satisfaction with the meeting with Czech employees of JINR who highly evaluated their work and life at the Joint Institute. Vítězslav Pivoňka also highly evaluated the successes of the technological cooperation of JINR and the Czech Republic. A bright example of this cooperation is major repairs of the Dubna Hotel carried out by the Czech company ASARKO. He also highlighted that such mutually beneficial cooperation fully meets the goals of developing partner contacts of the Czech Republic. JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov noted broad prospects for increasing the number of Czech scientists and specialists in JINR, as well as for enhancing cooperation with high-tech Czech companies in the light of the upcoming launch of the NICA complex. The parties noted the importance of strengthening activities on attracting young people to science and training highly qualified employees.

Participants of the meeting also noted significant successes in transmitting information in the Czech Republic about JINR capabilities achieved over the past few years thanks to the efforts of the Czech national group in JINR. The parties discussed the organization of Days of the Czech Republic in JINR scheduled for 18-20 October 2021, which had been previously postponed due to the pandemic.

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On behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic, Vítězslav Pivoňka extended an invitation to Grigory Trubnikov to visit the Czech Republic as soon as the epidemiological situation allows.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Czech Republic in Russia Vítězslav Pivoňka conveyed his congratulations to the Joint Institute on its 65th anniversary, “On 26 March, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research celebrates its 65th anniversary. We are proud that in 1956, Czechoslovakia was one of the founding states of this Institute, and we wish it great success in the future! This international research centre is a unique project of scientific cooperation that has helped train a number of outstanding Czech specialists in the fields of particle physics over the years. Based on this experience, we would like to focus on the programmes for students and young scientists in the framework of the membership of the Czech Republic in JINR. Moreover, we would like to enhance cooperation between Czech universities, JINR, and researchers from other founding states.

The fact that Czech enterprises may take part in the programmes on modernization and expansion of the JINR research base plays a significant role in the framework of the Czech membership in JINR. It is with great pleasure that I state that Czech companies have gained a good reputation for the years of their work in Dubna, and they are ready to continue their cooperation.”

Czech TV and radio companies covered the visit of the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to JINR. JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov in the interview to them said the following when commenting on the Joint Institute and its cooperation with the Czech Republic, “The visit of the Ambassador of the Czech Republic is a wonderful gift. This is the first embassy visit in the long period of the pandemic. We have a broad, rich agenda of results and, of course, plans for the future to discuss jointly.

The Czech delegation today had an opportunity to make sure that many nodes and large-scale facilities of almost all the large-scale research projects of the Institute could not operate without Czech equipment. It is a full-scale partnership when we design and create complex high-tech systems.

The Czech Republic is one of the leading JINR Member States in terms of scientific activity. We have a large and energetic national team of Czech employees. Czech staff members together with other Member States actively work and create the NICA collider, detectors, accelerators. They work in the fields of information technologies and neutron studies. The Institute has a comfortable scientific environment without nationalities, religions. We are scientists, we are citizens of the world. We are working on the most ambitious tasks together. Science of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna truly is the instrument that brings nations together.

Photos by Igor Lapenko