China holds another inter-ministerial meeting to coordinate on missing flight

BEIJING - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted another inter-ministerial meeting on Sunday to coordinate efforts of relevant departments on the missing Malaysian fight, requesting to release authorized information in a timely manner.

According to a press release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, participants from relevant departments briefed the latest developments regarding the incident, and discussed following work arrangements.

The meeting requests all related departments to strengthen coordination, go all out for the search and rescue mission, and release authorized information in a timely manner.

The meeting involves participants from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Transport, Civil Aviation Administration of China and other government departments, as well as the Chinese armed forces and Beijing municipality.

Wang convened the first inter-ministerial meeting on Saturday to strengthen coordination among all ministries to deal with the incident. The meeting called for verifications of the situation of those who on board as soon as possible, for passengers' relatives to be consoled, and for the public to be kept informed.

More than 40 hours after the last contact with Flight MH370, carrying 239 people including more than 150 Chinese bound from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the whereabouts of the missing plane remains unknown.

China has joined Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries for the search and rescue work as the whole country continues to pray for the safety of the passengers onboard.