Prime Minister Tony Abbott has cut short his annual Pollie Pedal charity ride to travel to the Netherlands for briefings on the identification process for the victims of the MH17 disaster.
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Mr Abbott will fly out from Canberra to The Hague early on Sunday morning to meet with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to thank him for the Netherlands’ work leading the search for the remains of those killed in the plane crash in eastern Ukraine.
During his short visit to the Netherlands, Mr Abbott will be briefed on the victim-identification process by the Dutch chief scientist.
He will also welcome back Australian police and Defence personnel who have been working on the crash site and who are returning to the Netherlands from Ukraine.
The search for victims' remains has been suspended due to escalating clashes between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists.
Mr Abbott was originally due to spend the week on his annual Pollie Pedal ride, but will only launch the ride on Saturday afternoon from Moree before preparing to fly overseas.
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister’s office said Mr Abbott would only participate in part of the ride due to the MH17 disaster and the need to be able to receive security briefings at short notice.
Ahead of the visit, the Dutch government issued a brief statement, noting that Australia and the Netherlands have been ‘‘working together closely to repatriate and identify all the victims as soon as possible’’.
‘‘Following the meeting [with Mr Rutte], Prime Minister Abbott will sign the book of condolence for the Dutch victims of the disaster.’’
This will be Mr Abbott’s first trip to the Netherlands as Prime Minister, but he has met Mr Rutte previously, at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. The trip comes after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak flew to the Netherlands to discuss the Malaysia Airlines disaster with Mr Rutte in late July.
On Friday, it was revealed that forensic experts working in Hilversum in the Netherlands had identified a further 21 victims of flight MH17.
Only two bodies had previously been identified, both Dutch nationals.
The 21 additional victims comprise 16 Dutch, including a dual British national, two Malaysians, a German, a Canadian and a Briton.
On Friday, 142 police experts from the Netherlands, Australia and Malaysia arrived back in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven after searching the crash site in Ukraine.
with AAP
