MH370: Tripartite meeting report to be tabled to Cabinet Wednesday

The Transport Ministry is preparing a joint cabinet paper with the Defence and Foreign ministries on the outcome of a tripartite ministerial meeting between Malaysia, Australia and China in Australia, to be tabled this Wednesday.

Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein said the cabinet paper, among others, would put forward suggestions by the tripartite meeting on the new search phase for the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 that went missing on March 8.

The new phase of search included an analysis and refinement of the Inmarsat satellite data and the mapping of the seabed in the southern Indian Ocean, where the flight was believed to have ended, he told reporters after receiving a courtesy call from Australian Navy Chief Vice Admiral Ray Griggs at Wisma Pertahanan here today.

"The report will also, among others, include the deployment of assets, which have specific capabilities for the search mission," he added.

The Tripartite Ministerial Meeting was held at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra on May 5 between Hishammuddin, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss and Chinese Transport Minister Yang Chuangtang, which among others were to discuss on the new phase of search for MH370.

Flight MH370 with 227 passengers and 12 crew left the KL International Airport at 12.41am for Beijing, China on March 8 before going off the radar an hour later.

On March 24, 17 days after the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft has gone missing, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that flight MH370 had ended in the southern Indian Ocean.

Hishammuddin described the recent meeting in Australia as comprehensive, complete and most constructive and reflected a high level of cooperation, collaboration and trust between the three nations.

"What is important is that the meeting in Australia (Canberra) (with the Australian deputy prime minister and Chinese transport minister) was quite historical because it had put aside a lot of conspiracy theories with regards to geopolitical arguments," he said.

"The point that we are looking at now is on the deep sea search, on the asset that is very specialised and sharing of (search) cost because in the past there was no talk of dollars and cents...to be fair to our partners it is time for us to actually look at it (cost sharing) more seriously, because it might be for a long haul," he said.

Commenting on the request from the families of those on board MH370 for the government to release raw satellite data, Hishammuddin said it was better for the International Panel of Experts to decide which information should be made public.

Earlier Griggs and his delegation paid a courtesy call on Malaysian Armed Forces Chief General Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin and Royal Malaysian Navy Chief Admiral Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar.