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China pauses cooperation with Russian Academy of Sciences

According to Alexander Sergeev, the academy is maintaining contact with scientists who wish to cooperate

MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. Chinese partners of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) put cooperation with the Academy "on hold", freezing the development of previously discussed projects, Alexander Sergeev, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences said on Thursday, during the International Scientific and Practical Conference "Digital International Relations - 2022" held at Russia’s MGIMO University.

"If we talk about the southern or eastern directions, unfortunately, I can say directly that our Chinese scientific colleagues have also pressed the pause [button], and over the past month we have not been able to enter into serious discussions, despite the fact that we had excellent cooperation along with regular communication," Sergeev said.

He added that in any case, we will have to return to normal cooperation, even in the field of science. "Therefore, the right thing to do is to behave in such a way that we do not give into provocations, do not break off relations, and still try to hold on to what we have where it is possible," the Russian Academy of Sciences’ president added.

According to Sergeev, the academy is maintaining contact with scientists who wish to cooperate. But if we talk about agencies and academies of sciences of other countries, the situation is very difficult. "There has never been such a situation," the RAS head noted.

"Our colleagues, heads of scientific academies of other countries, simply refuse to contact. Moreover, after exchanging various proposals, holding meetings on the Internet, and different discussions, they simply postpone or scuttle these events, saying that the Academy of Sciences is also an organization that is in the political field, that "it is very difficult for us to do this, we are not allowed to do it," Sergeev said.

As a result, according to the institution’s head, the Russian Academy of Sciences has now frozen relations with most of the academies of sciences with which we had excellent cooperation before. There are very important partners among them - the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the French Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the United States.

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