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Russian Agreement with CERN

Geneva, 3 November 1993. On the occasion of the bi-annual meeting of the CERN1 -Russia Committee, under the co-chairmanship of Minister Boris Saltykov and CERN's Director-General, Professor Carlo Rubbia, a new Scientific and Technological Cooperation Agreement was formally signed on 30th October in the laboratories of the Institute for High Energy Physics (I.H.E.P.) in Protvino, near Moscow. The three year duration of this Agreement, constitutes a reasonable transitional period in further developing the long-standing relations, between CERN and the Russian Federation with the ultimate goal of the Russian Federation becoming a full Member of CERN.

Visiting the impressive installations at the I.H.E.P. laboratory, including the construction site of the UNK-600 accelerator, Minister Saltykov and Professor Rubbia expressed their satisfaction on excellent collaboration and called for increased participation in experiments both at CERN and in Russia. Maintaining a vigorous experimental programme both at home and on CERN's machines requires a major commitment in the context of Russian resources for pure and applied scientific research, but Minister Saltykov expressed his firm intention to maintain the present level in both human and material resources for what he called the most fundamental of basic research: an endeavour of a highly cultural character, in which an active Russian presence is essential.

For almost thirty years strong scientific and technological collaboration has existed between CERN and the former Soviet Union. A considerable part of these activities being carried out in the Russian Federation whilst Russian research institutes and physicists also play an important role in many experiments at CERN. Although essentially a European Laboratory, physicists from all around the world, including such countries as Canada, China, India, Israel, Japan and the United States of America work together on CERN experiments. Russian participation in CERN's international research programmes involves a heavy investment of intellectual, and in many cases technological and industrial efforts. This collaboration has not been limited to the use of CERN facilities but in several cases the expertise of Russian institutes has been applied to develop basic facilities of CERN's Laboratory. In addition, a number of international experiments involving CERN personnel were carried out in Russia, particularly in I.H.E.P. Protvino.

The Russian research institutes with assistance of highly competent sectors of Russian industry, have the firm intention to make a major contribution to the construction and utilisation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), CERN's new superconducting accelerator project. In the Russian Federation, the community of High Energy Physicists and the Government authorities, represented by Minister Boris Saltykov and Minister Victor Mikhailov, have decided on the usefulness, and even necessity to join CERN projects. It would be, in the opinion of all concerned, mutually beneficial for Russia and CERN and the world's High Energy Physics community and a step forward in the development of basic science around the world.

1. CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Israel, the Russian Federation, Turkey, Yugoslavia (status suspended after UN embargo, June 1992), the European Commission and Unesco have observer status.