IBSS Takes Part in "Russia-Vietnam: 75 Years of Cooperation" Research and Educational Forum

On December 11-13, Moscow hosted the "Russia-Vietnam: 75 Years of Cooperation" research and educational forum at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. The event marked the launch of the cross-year of scientific and educational cooperation between the two states in 2026, as declared by the countries' leaders.

The official opening ceremony featured welcoming addresses by several dignitaries. These included Dmitry Chernyshenko, Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Russian-Vietnamese Commission on Trade, Economic, and Scientific-Technical Cooperation and Deputy Prime Minister of Russia; Tran Hong Ha, Deputy Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; Andrey Yatskin, First Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council; Konstantin Mogilevsky, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation; Prof. Dr. Tran Hong Thai, Standing Vice President of Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology; Ivan Lobanov, Rector of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics; as well as heads of ministries, agencies, and academic institutes from Russia and Vietnam.

The A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas was represented at the Forum by three staff members: Deputy Director for Research, Candidate of Biological Sciences Ekaterina Skuratovskaya, and leading researchers from the Ichthyology Department, Candidates of Biological Sciences Evgenia Karpova and Elena Slynko.

At the panel session "Cooperation in Hydrological Research, Marine Biology, and Tropical Ecology," Ekaterina Skuratovskaya delivered a presentation on the results of IBSS's research within the framework of cooperation with the Joint Russian-Vietnamese Tropical Research and Technology Center.

"Our institute has been working in Vietnam for many years and has been closely collaborating with the Tropical Center since 2018. Together with Vietnamese colleagues, we successfully completed three major research themes by 2024, and this year we have continued our partnership with three new five-year projects," stated Ekaterina Skuratovskaya.

"One project is dedicated to studying the functioning and dynamics of landscapes in Central and Southern Vietnam under anthropogenic pressure and climate change to establish a scientific basis for their sustainable use. The second project focuses on researching and assessing the biodiversity of certain marine communities in the central and southern waters of Vietnam. For the third project, scientists are conducting research in the Dong Nai River basin, studying the current state of its ecosystems and the diversity of aquatic organisms. IBSS researchers also actively participate in major Russian-Vietnamese marine expeditions. The expeditions onboard the R/V Akademik Oparin to the South China Sea in 2023 and 2025 were successful, during which Sevastopol specialists studied the ecological state of coral reefs. Important results were obtained during the expedition on the R/V Professor Gagarinsky this year, where our scientists conducted hydrobiological and radiochemoecological research in the coastal waters of the Sea of Japan, East China Sea, and South China Sea," reported Ekaterina Skuratovskaya.

The first day of the Forum included a plenary session on the strategic partnership between Russia and Vietnam, the signing of a roadmap for marine research, and several panel sessions on oceanographic research, marine biology, tropical ecology, biomedicine, and pharmacology. On December 12, participants discussed issues of socio-humanitarian cooperation, as well as best practices in inter-university collaboration and cultural dialogue. The large-scale event concluded on December 13 with a rich cultural program.