This was a diplomatic and strategic triumph, the full extent of which may be measured by the ABC’s sourness.
ON Monday night, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Australian diplomats were hard at work in New York drafting a resolution to the UN that would call on Russia to back an independent investigation into the MH17 atrocity.
Predictably, as Bishop and her team negotiated with other nations over the precise wording of the resolution, the ABC downplayed any possibility of success. “We don’t know how Russia will vote this afternoon,” the ABC’s US correspondent Lisa Millar told Lateline. “They weren’t happy with what Australia had put on the table.
“If Russia vetoes, then that’s the end of the resolution, and at this stage, Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador, has not given an indication that he is happy.”
Yesterday morning Australians woke to the news that not only had Russia not vetoed the resolution, Russia had actually voted to support it. So much for the ABC’s judgment, which is invariably coloured by its ideological opposition to Tony Abbott’s government.
The UN’s Resolution 2166, largely driven by Bishop and her Australian team, is remarkably direct by comparison with many previous UN statements. It condemns “in the strongest terms the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17” and stresses “the need for a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the incident” which killed 298 passengers, including nearly 40 Australian citizens and residents.
The resolution also “demands that the armed groups in control of the crash site and the surrounding area refrain from any actions that might compromise the integrity of the crash site” and “demands that those responsible for this incident be held to account”.
Australia used all of its advantages to arrive at this outcome, which might be one of our greatest UN achievements since Doc Evatt helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Because Australia is not dependent on Russian oil and gas like much of Europe, the government was able to take a much stronger line against Putin. This alone would not work, however, unless Australia wove that line into a broader opposition with other nations.
It appears the tactic worked. Once Prime Minister Tony Abbott had made clear his anger over Russia’s handling of the MH17 disaster, European nations especially were able to pursue further negotiations behind the scenes. Australia’s lightning rod role in the immediate aftermath of MH17’s crash facilitated the quick UN resolution.
This was a diplomatic and strategic triumph, the full extent of which may be measured by the ABC’s sourness.
