On 28 – 29 September 2022, a delegation from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) headed by its President Academician Chau Van Minh visited JINR. On 29 September, representatives of the Embassy of Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Moscow headed by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Dang Minh Khoi also joined the VAST delegation. The VAST President introduced the new Plenipotentiary Representative of the Government of Vietnam in JINR, Vice President of VAST Tran Tuan Anh. The visit was devoted to the 132nd session of the JINR Scientific Council, and the Plenipotentiary Representative took part in its work.

JINR Director Academician Grigory Trubnikov warmly welcomed the guests at a round table at the International Conference Centre. In his opening speech, he reminded that Vietnam was one of the founding states of JINR and one of those countries that have been a reliable, open, and friendly partner of the Institute and an active participant of its scientific programme for many years. He thanked the Vietnamese colleagues for hosting the 2019 meetings of the JINR Committee of Plenipotentiaries and the JINR Finance Committee at the highest level in Hanoi and expressed confidence that those visiting events and the international conference held on their sidelines gave new impetus to the JINR cooperation with both Vietnam and the Asia Pacific Region in general.

“We have great prospects for cooperation. Vietnam is one of the leaders in the pace of economic development, it is a country with great potential, strong scientific schools, and human resources,” Grigory Trubnikov stressed and expressed confidence that joint work of JINR with Vietnamese colleagues would become even more fruitful in the future. He also invited Vietnamese scientists to get more involved in the work on JINR flagship project, the NICA Collider.

VAST President Chau Van Minh thanked the JINR Directorate for supporting Vietnamese scientists. “We hope to develop our cooperation in personnel training in the near future, as well as increase the number of scientific projects, which is already supported by the agreement signed in 2019 between VAST and JINR,” he said.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the Russian Federation H.E. Dang Minh Khoi noted the long-standing beneficial cooperation of Vietnam with JINR as well as with its location country. “It is important to increase the number of Vietnamese students attending science and technology courses in Russia, especially nuclear physics. The Government of Vietnam and its Embassy in the Russian Federation will continue to support close cooperation between JINR and VAST, as well as other research institutes in Vietnam, especially in the field of personnel training,” he highlighted.

VAST President and the JINR Directorate thanked Professor Le Hong Khiem for his many years of successful work as the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Vietnamese Government in JINR. It was noted that during this time, the cooperation of Vietnam with JINR had significantly strengthened and that Professor Le Hong Khiem had supported many new initiatives. In particular, the Joint Coordinating Committee on JINR-Vietnam Cooperation was launched on his initiative in 2021. The parties agreed that Professor Le Hong Khiem would continue to be actively involved in developing cooperation as a coordinator.

During the meeting, the parties discussed current issues of Vietnam’s contribution to JINR. The focus in the near future will be to expand the Vietnamese national group. At the end of the meeting, a protocol of the session was signed, which stressed once again the main priorities of cooperation development, in particular in the direction of personnel training.

The parties agreed to organize a response visit by the Joint Institute’s delegation to Hanoi at the end of October.