Mr Abbott has touched down in the Netherlands, where he will meet with his counterpart Mark Rutte in the wake of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
More than 500 defence force personnel, Australian Federal Police and diplomatic staff remain on the ground overseas amid efforts to identify and repatriate the 38 Australians killed.
Speaking to the ABC this morning, Mr Abbott described the mission as “bittersweet”.
“Sad, because the Dutch lost almost 200 of their citizens in the atrocity and I guess professionally pleasing, because the Australian personnel have done a magnificent job,” he said.
Mr Abbott confirmed that efforts had been suspended at the crash site.
“The risks were getting greater and the rewards were getting fewer,” he said.
“If at a later time, the fighting in the area subsides, if we think there are more remains to be recovered, obviously we’ll go back.”
Mr Abbott also refused to rule out the Russian President’s attendance at G20 conference, to be held in Brisbane in November, saying the government would “wait and see”.
“The G20 is still more than three months away,” he said.
“Let’s wait and see. The G20… is an economic gathering, it’s not a security gathering.
“My hope is that even at this late stage, Russia will wake up to itself… My hope it that cooler heads will prevail and Russia will get on with being Russia and leave Ukraine to be Ukraine. That’s my hope.”
Despite refusing to rule out Putin’s attendance in November, Mr Abbott said “everything’s on the table” in terms of tougher sanctions against Russia.
“We certainly are looking at tougher sanctions, I think the world is looking at tougher sanctions,” he said.
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