UPDATE ON MISSING JET: Talks on missing Malaysian airliner begin in Australia

Canberra (IANS): The trilateral ministerial talks among China, Malaysia and Australia on the search of missing Malaysian Airline flight MH370 has started in the parliament house in Canberra Monday morning. It is expected to cover the search arrangement in the next phase.

Upon arrival for the meeting, Malaysian Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters that he is hoping the meeting will put the structure for future search in place, Xinhua reported.

“We are now going to deep sea search which requires specific assets,” he said, adding that there has been many countries that want to come aboard the search operation.

He refused to comment whether the meeting will set a time frame for the search, but saying the agenda is pretty wide.

“The fact that three delegations, big delegations, are sitting down together and looking forward to (the next stage search), is already a huge achievement,” he said.