Chinese envoy meets relatives of passengers in Malaysia

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KUALA LUMPUR - Chinese special envoy Zhang Yesui met with the relatives of MH370 passengers here on Thursday as Malaysian officials increased their engagement with family members and reiterated their commitment to continuing the search for the missing plane.

In an attempt to increase interaction between the Chinese government and the Malaysian government, Zhang, who is also a vice foreign minister, met with the families of passengers on flight MH370.

The meeting came a day after Zhang met with the Malaysian prime minister and ministers of transport and defense to obtain the latest information regarding the massive search for MH370, which is now believed to have been ended over the southern waters off the Australian city of Perth.

"Malaysia is committed to working closely with the government of China and to sharing all information related to MH370 in full," said the latest statement released by the Transport Ministry.

The statement attempted to assure greater interaction with Chinese families mentioning that a second meeting between the relatives and Malaysian officials was held in Beijing on Wednesday.

"Malaysia is working hard to try and make the briefings to the Chinese relatives in Beijing more productive. Malaysian officials met with China's Ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang to request the government of China to engage and clarify the actual situation to the affected families in particular and the Chinese public in general," the statement added.

Meanwhile, search operations for the missing plane continued with greater concentration on the area where 122 potential objects were sighted earlier. A total of nine planes from China, New Zealand, Japan and Australia combed the vast areas of sea along with six ships.

The Chinese ship Xue Long was deployed to the East Sector that covers 6,506 square nautical miles.

Four Chinese ships, namely the Kunlunshan, Haikou, Qiandaohui and Zhonghaishaohua together with one Australian ship explored the West Sector spanning 16,298 square nautical miles.

Another Chinese ship named Hai Xun is expected to continue search operations Thursday night.

"Malaysia is in the process of sending a team, comprised of the DCA, Malaysian Airlines, the Royal Malaysian Navy and the Royal Malaysian Air Force, to Perth. This team will work closely with the Australian Rescue Co-ordination Centre to assist with the search operation,"the statement from the Transport Ministry noted.

This group is expected to tie up with search operations that will commence from March 28 after a US black box locator is fixed to an Australian vessel. The locator, which is expected to pick up "pings"from the MH370 black box, is likely to come into operation on April 5.