Chinese FM calls for continued MH370 search

KUALA LUMPUR - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Thursday that search efforts on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 should be continued to find the truth behind the one of the biggest mysteries in the aviation history.

Wang made the call following Malaysia's announcement that the piece of wreckage that washed up on Reunion Island last week was from the missing jet.

China agrees with Malaysia that efforts should be made to find out the truth of what happened to the plane, and China wishes to see follow-up works to be carried out and related issues to be properly handled, Wang told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing foreign ministers' meetings of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and their dialogue partners.

Malaysia should take considerations of the feelings of the families of passengers on the tragic flight and make further explanations to them on the latest developments, he said.

The debris was discovered on Reunion Island on July 29 and was officially identified as part of a plane wing known as a flaperon from a Boeing 777.

Prior to the latest discovery, a massive surface and underwater hunt had failed to find the plane, which went missing on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 on board, most of them Chinese.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak vowed Thursday that the government of Malaysia is committed to doing everything within its means to find out the truth of what happened.

China's foreign ministry said in a statement earlier Thursday that China asks Malaysia to continue investigating the cause of the MH370 accident.

The Chinese government expresses grief and sorrow for those on board, and extends profound sympathy and condolences to their families, it said.