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Putin still welcome to G20 leaders summit: Abbott

Xinhua, July 31, 2014

• Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Thursday he would like Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the upcoming G20 leaders summit in Australia despite the constant hampering of international investigators trying to reach the MH17 crash site.

  The suspected shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines plane by pro-Russian rebels has triggered calls for Putin to be banned from the Brisbane meeting in November.

  But Abbott believes it would be better Russia that attended the important international event.

  "I would like to be in a position for him to continue to attend, " he told local radio.

  "There will no doubt be a lot of water flow under the bridge between now and November."

  Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said recently that Putin should be uninvited from the Brisbane G20 meeting because of his government's "reckless and stupid" actions leading up to the MH17 disaster.

  "For an outside nation to have supplied these Ukrainian rebels with this weaponry of war and murder is a very, very reckless and stupid act," he told reporters.

  Shorten said the Australian government should consider barring Putin from the G20 if the country did not support the MH17 investigation.

  "If the Russian Federation will not co-operate to help resolve and get to the heart of what has happened here, I don't think Australians would welcome them coming to the G20," he said.

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