Netherlands Hopes to Continue Contacts With Russia on MH17 in Trilateral Format

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Netherlands expects to continue contacts with Russia on the case of the Malaysian Boeing flight MH17 crash in Ukraine in 2014 in the format of trilateral consultations, which also includes Australia, the country's foreign ministry told Sputnik.

"The Dutch government is ready to continue trilateral negotiations to find a solution", the ministry said, answering about further cooperation between the countries over the plane crash.

On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia considered it impossible to further participate in trilateral consultations with Australia and the Netherlands on the Boeing disaster, but was ready to interact with relevant Dutch authorities.

Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok expressed regret at Moscow's decision and said that Russian Ambassador to The Hague Alexander Shulgin had been summoned to the Dutch Foreign Ministry.

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 criticised 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.