Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok and his Australian counterpart Marise Payne discussed the situation around the investigation into the crash of flight MH17 in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas as well as their joint decision to hold Russia to account over the incident, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th September, 2018) Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok and his Australian counterpart Marise Payne discussed the situation around the investigation into the crash of flight MH17 in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas as well as their joint decision to hold Russia to account over the incident, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Blok and Payne met on late Tuesday in New York, which is currently hosting the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
"Foreign minister Stef Blok and his Australian counterpart Marise Payne have spoken in New York about their countries' joint decision to hold Russia responsible for its part in downing flight MH17," the statement read.
The Dutch foreign minister noted that the countries sought negotiations with Russia on the latter's alleged responsibility for the tragic crash.
"At the end of May the Netherlands and Australia asked Russia to enter into negotiations with us on the matter of state responsibility ... The Netherlands and Australia have been in contact with Russia through our diplomatic channels. It's important that the negotiations can start in the foreseeable future," Blok said, as quoted in the statement.
He also positively assessed the Dutch-Australian cooperation on the investigation.
Flight MH17 crashed on July 17, 2014 in eastern Ukraine while en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, killing all 298 people on board. Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine's southeast have blamed each other for the downing of Malaysia Airlines plane.
The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) concluded that the plane was brought down by a missile that came from the 53rd Anti-aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, based near Russia's Kursk. The UK-based Bellingcat group came to similar conclusions, accusing Moscow of being responsible for the tragedy.
Moscow has repeatedly denied the JIT's conclusions and said that these claims were unfounded, while the investigation itself was biased. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia has not been granted access to the investigation, adding that Moscow would be able to recognize its results only if it was part of the probe.
Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry presented declassified files on the Buk missile that hit flight MH17 in 2014, showing that the missile was made at Russia's Dolgoprudny Plant in 1986, delivered to a military unit in Ukraine and remained in the country after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
