UN resolution on MH17: How Australia achieved what other nations could not

[nero_bolt]

Well done to Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop

New York:  The United Nations Security Council meets in a beautiful hall that was a gift to the world from the people of Norway when the organisation’s headquarters were built in New York after the dead of World War II were buried.

Since then it has often been a shrine to good intentions, a chamber in which plain language and firm resolve is mangled or obliterated by compromise and interference.

Not on Monday.

When Security Council members, with representatives of nations whose citizens were murdered aboard flight MH17 last week, gathered to pass unanimously an Australian resolution condemning the downing of the flight and demanding immediate access to the site of the atrocity, the dignified repatriation of the remains of the victims and an independent international investigation, the language used was powerful, angry and bitterly sad.

That the resolution survived Russia’s power of veto with its language and intent largely intact was the result of a smart and astonishingly fast diplomatic effort led by Australia

When the Security Council vote was held just after 3pm on Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop had been in the country for just a day. After arriving in Washington on Sunday, Ms Bishop had travelled straight to ambassador Kim Beazley’s residence in the city’s leafy north-western suburbs. There they sat down with CIA director John Brennan and some of his staff and James Clapper, US President Barack Obama’s director of national intelligence.

After the meeting Ms Bishop held a quick press conference in the entrance hall at the residence. The impact of the briefings was apparent. Ms Bishop’s cool reserve was intact, but seemed tempered by real anger.

Earlier in the day US Secretary of State John Kerry had revealed in TV interviews that bodies at the crash site had been moved by drunken separatists. There were reports of looting. Evidence was being tampered with.

Armed with the briefings, Ms Bishop and her team left the residence and took the  3½-hour train trip to New York.

For reasons of both politics and tragic circumstance, Australia is well placed to take the lead in the talks. With 37 of its citizens or residents killed, Australia’s interest is significant, but it is distant enough from European and transatlantic geopolitics to act as an honest broker between Ukraine, Russia and the US. 

It is a member of the Security Council, unlike the Netherlands, which has lost almost 200 citizens, and Malaysia, whose aircraft has been shot out over the sky, and Ukraine, in whose airspace the crime has been committed.

Lots more to read here.....

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/un-resolution-on-mh17-how-australia-achieved-what-other-nations-could-no...

[i-need-a-martini]

Well isn't it lucky that the Labor Party pushed ahead with ensuring our countries involvement with the UNSC despite howling protests and criticism from Abbott etal.

Because if this had been left to the LNP, we would not be part of the UNSC and we would be sitting alongside the Dutch PM right now wringing our hands in futility.

And lets also imagine how much faster this resolution could have occurred if we hadn't spent the last 6 months distancing ourselves from a persuasive (left leaning) Obama presidency and diplomatically aligning ourselves instead with a right winged Canadian government.

OP - whilst I appreciate that something has been done finally by our government, your premise that it has been done because we have this 'amazing' government is just plain ridiculous.

[azureline**]

Personal commitment?? isn't it part of her job description?

[freddie*rooster]

Julie's speach writer done a great job.

[the_great_she_elephant]

I think we need to be fair about this, Julie Bishop did a great job in securing that resolution and  Julia Gillard did a great job in ensuring that she was in a position to do so.

Two strong women and one great outcome.

[fiestas*girl]

copied this quote from australias worst pm site

We witnessed the performance of JB running to the UN, first plane off the tarmac in her rush to beat Putin to the words. She raced in to the UN Security Council with all the grace and aplomb of a charging rhino. She castigated the Russian representative, and mounted an announcement full of vitriol and malice, demanding a full and open investigation of the shooting down of the MH17. She was acting like a woman possessed, outperforming even Condy Rice, Madeleine Albright and even Hillary Clinton - WARNING Russia!!! **bleep**, get over yourself JB, Putin announced a full and open transparent investigation before you even landed in US. She really knows how to pick her enemies, making demands when the Dutch and Malaysians have first pick. The Dutch lost nearly 200 people in that tragedy, they are a country in mourning, they do not want to hear Shriek making demands, they are just waiting for the facts to slowly emerge. Then she gets on with the soldiers touching the bodies - maybe they were looking for identification, obviously they have not been trained to operate for when planes get shot down.

[lionrose.7]

Those soldier as you call them are thugs, who held up a child toy for all to see,

Those soliers where the same ones that shot down the plane.

Those soldiers would not let the inspector in and fired shots in the air.

Those soldiers had no respect for the dead at all.

If one of mine was on that plane I would want some one to do some thing really quick.

300 dead and people using it to play their politicial games, how quick some forget

[Anonymous]

Putin announced a full and open transparent investigation before you even landed in US

if that was supposed to be funny -

extremely inappropriate .

[***super_nova***]

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@*julia*2010 wrote:

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Argentina’s ambassador to the UN Security Council singled out the “courage of Australia”

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By the way, "brave" in diplomatic speak means foolhardy.  🙂

[Anonymous]

Freddie, Im sorry, but maybe noone else is going to tell you.

Its not 'done' its 'did'.

just for future reference :).

[monman12]

Feel better now FG?

"mounted an announcement full of vitriol and malice,"?  "mounted" ? I think the vitriol is more on show here , sans grammar !.

"get over yourself JB, Putin announced a full and open transparent investigation before you even landed in US"  Really?,  that would be problematic considering Putin would be unable to initiate any  investigation within  foreign sovereign territory!!

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to do everything possible to influence pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and help ensure a full probe into the Malaysia Airlines crash last week. "

I think your C&P (no direct  link) author needs some calming down, grammar lessons, and a few facts.

nɥºɾ