DEPARTMENT OF STATE TV

Boston, Massachusetts - 13 October 2015

1. US Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishiop, Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne enter room for press conference

2. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Julie Bishiop / Australian Foreign Minister

"I want to thank the United States for their support in assisting Australia and the other countries who lost citizens aboard the ilfated Malaysian Airline MA-17. I raised that today, some months after the crash that occurred on the 17th of July, 2014, because today overnight Dutch Safety Board report into the cause of the downing of MH-17 where 38 Australian citizens and residents lost their lives, has been made public and that report while it does not nor did it have the responsibility to, it does not aportion blame. It most certainly rules out any other cause of the downing of this plane, and we now know that it was brought down by a surface-to-air Buk missile as the Australian government and the United States knew back in July of 2014. So we thank you for your support and that will be an ongoing challenge for us as we seek to bring the perpetrators of that atrocious act to account."

3. Kerry shaking hands at end of press conference

Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop thanked the United States its help as a 15-month Dutch investigation into the downing of flight MH17 blamed a Soviet-made surface-to-air Buk missile for destroying the Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur flight.

It identified an area of 320 square kilometers (120 square miles) where it said the launch must have taken place, and all of the land was in the hands of pro-Russian separatists fighting Ukrainian forces at the time of the disaster, according to daily maps of fighting released by the Ukrainian National Security Council.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Wednesday a criminal investigation of the atrocity will continue.

Bishop was in the US, having talks with Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Minister Marise Payne.

Australia had the third largest number of victims with 39 Australian citizens and permanent residents aboard.