Australia is disappointed by Russia's decision to abandon trilateral consultations with the Netherlands on the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 and calls on Moscow to immediately return to the negotiations, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2020) Australia is disappointed by Russia's decision to abandon trilateral consultations with the Netherlands on the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 and calls on Moscow to immediately return to the negotiations, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Friday.
On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow finds it impossible to further participate in the trilateral consultations but is ready to continue cooperating with relevant Dutch agencies.
"The Australian Government is deeply disappointed by Russia's decision to withdraw from the trilateral talks with the Netherlands regarding its role in the downing of MH17 on 17 July 2014 ... We urge Russia to return immediately to the talks," Payne said in a statement.
The top diplomat added that Canberra is still committed to finding the truth about the tragic accident that killed nearly 300 people, including 38 Australians.
Russia's decision came after the Netherlands filed a lawsuit against Moscow with the European Court of Human Rights, over its alleged role in downing the MH17 plane. Russia called the Netherlands' move "unfriendly".
Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok has said ,too, that the Netherlands regrets Russia's decision to withdraw from trilateral consultations.
After taking off from Amsterdam, flight MH17 was downed by a missile in the Donetsk region while en route to Kuala Lumpur. All passengers on board the aircraft died in the incident. Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics in the Donbas region have accused each other of shooting down the aircraft.
The Dutch-led Joint Investigative Team, which is looking into the case, believes that the Boeing was shot down from with a weapon belonging to a Russian military unit. The Russian authorities have criticized the Dutch investigation for ignoring radar data presented by Moscow, which it says shows that the plane was shot down by a Ukrainian Buk missile.
