"Consultations continue, but we have agreed that they will remain confidential", Grushko said, when asked whether Russian and the Netherlands were engaged in consultations on the matter.
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was downed over eastern Ukraine, on 17 July 2014, amid a military conflict in the county caused by a violent coup d'état in Kiev.
All 298 passengers on the aircraft, predominantly Dutch and Malaysian nationals, died in the crash.
Almost immediately after the incident, the US and its European allies claimed without presenting any evidence that Russia was responsible for the tragedy. These allegations were used by Washington and Brussels as a pretext to introduce sanctions against Moscow, while Russia repeatedly denied the accusations.
A Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT), formed soon after the crash, invited Ukraine, Belgium, and Australia to join the probe, but excluded Russia from the investigation.
In 2018, JIT claimed that the plane was shot down by a Buk missile system, which allegedly came from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian military, citing "classified information" provided by the Dutch and US authorities that could not be revealed. It was also noted that the team used images from social networks to prove the claims.
Addressing the allegations, Moscow conducted its own investigation showing that the Buk missile which hit the flight was made at the Dolgoprudny Plant in Moscow region in 1986, delivered to a military unit in Ukraine and remained there after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. However, the evidence was completely ignored by the Dutch-led investigation.
In its "latest finding", JIT has named 3 Russian citizens and one Ukrainian as suspects in the MH17 downing and announced that a trial into the case will begin in the Netherlands in March 2020.
Moscow once again slammed the accusations, calling for an unbiased investigation. According to President Vladimir Putin, Russia could only recognise the results of the probe if it was allowed to participate in it.
