ASEAN-Russia dialogue partnership unaffected by MH17 tribunal veto: Russian FM

Russia has said its status as ASEAN's dialogue partner remains unaffected despite its veto block of a United Nations' resolution to set up an international tribunal over the MH17 air disaster in July last year.

"Not at all," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov when asked whether the Russian veto had affected his country's relations with Malaysia and ASEAN.

He said Russia had the usual dialogue-partner meeting with ASEAN members and he had bilateral talks with Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman here.

"In fact, I found (that there was) full understanding of the Russian position because this position is intended to resolve the main things for our Malaysian friends and is intended to establish the truth," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the six-day 48th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (AMM) and related meetings which ends today.

Malaysia submitted to the United Nations Security Council last month a draft resolution to set up the tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the death of the 298 people on board the Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17 last year.

Malaysia's move had the backing of the Netherlands, which had 196 of its citizens on board the plane, as well as Ukraine and Belgium.

Russia was the only member of the 15-member UN Security Council to oppose the move, triggering widespread condemnation, according to reports, while 11 other members gave their support to the draft resolution. Angola, China and Venezuela abstained.

Lavrov said Russia appreciated the fact that Malaysia had approached the tragedy without any attempt to speculate on the incident.

"We are looking for solidarity with the Malaysian people. We appreciate the fact that Malaysia approached this tragedy without any attempt to speculate on the incident, speculate on the feelings of the families," he said.

However, he insisted that establishing the tribunal was not the right move, saying that the Security Council could not establish organs to investigate or to prosecute people for criminal offences and that the downing of the plane was a criminal offence.

He explained that when the investigation was completed, which could be by year-end, there could be many options on how to bring the culprits to justice including several countries agreeing to create some legal procedures or using national jurisdictions.

"The obsession with the Security Council makes me think that some people prefer to play a propaganda game because they do not have the answers to so many legitimate questions, like why the investigation was conducted so late," he said.

Russia was elevated to a full dialogue partner of ASEAN in July 1996. The then Soviet Union and Malaysia established diplomatic relations in 1967.