Dutch Royals visit Australian MH17 monument

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima commemmorated the victims of flight MH17 by visiting the Australian monument for the victims in Canberra with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. They placed sunflowers at the monument commemorating the 38 Australians killed in the airline disaster in Ukraine, NU.nl reports.

The monument is located at the Australian Parliament in Canberra. Ministers of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders and Julie Bishop also laid flowers at the monument. 

"For my wife and me, commemorating the Australian victims this morning at the memorial was a very moving experience." King Willem-Alexander said afterwards while meeting Australian emergency services who helped after the plane crash. "We greatly appreciate Australia's outstanding cooperation in the investigation of the full facts. So that those responsible can be called to account and justice can be done."

Koenders called it a consolation that the tragedy brought the Netherlands and Australia closer together.

Earlier on Wednesday the Royals also laid a wreath at the grave of an unknown soldier and spoke with veterans of World War II and the Australian efforts in Afghanistan. They also showed honor to Tarin Kowt, the Afghanistan place where both the Netherlands and Australia fought.