Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is scheduled to meet his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte in The Hague over the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 crash in Ukraine when he arrives

tomorrow for a two-day working visit to the Netherlands.

Najib is scheduled to arrive at 8am local time (2pm in Malaysia), accompanied by his wife Rosmah Mansor, Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam and Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin.

Malaysian Ambassador to the Netherlands Fauziah Mohamad Taib said Najib's visit was primarily aimed at getting an update on the identification of the victims of the disaster and the repatriation of the remains.   

Fauziah told Malaysian journalists in Amsterdam that Najib would have four hours of

discussions with Rutte, from 11.15am (5.15pm in Malaysia) and then leave for Hilversum where the remains of the victims are undergoing identification and forensic process.

Flight MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it went down in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border on July 17.

Media conference at 2pm on Friday

 

The Boeing 777-200 aircraft, which was carrying 298 people - 283 passengers and 15 crew, is believed to have been shot down, but until today nobody has claimed responsibility.

The remains of the victims were flown from Ukraine to the Netherlands. Dutch nationals, at 193, comprised the largest number of passengers on Flight MH17.

 

Fauziah said Najib would host a dinner on Thursday and a media conference at 8am local time the next day.  

She said this was Najib's first working visit to the Netherlands. Previous Malaysian leaders who visited the Netherlands were former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, in 2005, and Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in 1986, she added.

 

Fauziah said Malaysia was the Netherlands' largest trading and investment partner among Southeast Asian countries.

- Bernama