Paris has called on Moscow to return to trilateral consultations with Australia and the Netherlands on the circumstances of the deadly MH17 downing in Eastern Ukraine in July 2014
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th October, 2020) Paris has called on Moscow to return to trilateral consultations with Australia and the Netherlands on the circumstances of the deadly MH17 downing in Eastern Ukraine in July 2014.
Last week, Russia announced its decision to withdraw from the consultations on the plane crash, which were initiated in 2018, as the two other parties tried to blame Moscow for the tragedy, reiterating at the same time its readiness to cooperate with relevant Dutch agencies on the matter. Both the Netherlands and Austria condemned the decision.
"We have also continuously called for the implementation of [UN] Resolution 2166. That is the message that the 27 EU Heads of State and Government collectively wished to emphasize at the European Council. We join our European partners in inviting Russia to honor its international obligations and reverse its decision," the statement published by French Foreign Ministry late on Monday read.
Following the downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over Donetsk Oblast in Eastern Ukraine, which had killed 283 passengers and 15 crew aboard, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2166 in July 2014 to advocate for a thorough international investigation into the plane crash.
Amsterdam initiated a probe into the matter, which concluded that the aircraft was shot down with a missile� launched by the Russian military unit in the Donetsk region. The Netherlands filed a complaint against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the aircraft crash. Moscow called move "unfriendly" and decried the Dutch investigators for brushing aside radar data presented by Russia, which showed an Ukrainian Buk missile downing the plane.
