Najib Arrives In Australia For Working Visit

PERTH, April 2 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak arrived at the Perth International Airport, here, at 11pm Wednesday for a two-day working visit to Australia to have a first-hand look at the search operation being conducted out of this western Australian city for the missing Malaysian airliner believed to have gone down in the southern Indian Ocean.

Accompanying him are his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, Department of Civil Aviation director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman and chief of Air Force Tan Sri Rodzali Daud.

Advisor in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamaluddin Jarjis, Malaysia High Commissioner to Australia Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad and Malaysian officers welcomed their arrival.

Earlier, Zainal Abidin at a press conference said that Najib was scheduled to meet with his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott on the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 and also to discuss strengthening of bilateral relations between the two countries tomorrow.

Flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, left the KL International Airport at 12.41am on March 8 and disappeared from radar screens about an hour later while over the South China Sea. It was to have landed in Beijing at 6.30am the same day.

A multinational search was mounted for the aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learned that the plane had veered off course, along two corridors - the northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand and the southern corridor, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

Following an unprecedented type of analysis of satellite data, United Kingdom satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) concluded that Flight MH370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia.

Najib then announced on March 24, seventeen days after the disappearance of the Boeing 777-200 aircraft, that Flight MH370 "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".

Zainal Abidin said Najib and Abbott would meet after a visit to the Royal Australian Air Force Pearce base.

He said the two leaders would discuss strengthening of bilateral relations in the areas of investment, trade, common regional issues, defence and education, and would hold a joint press conference after their meeting.

Zainal Abidin said Najib and his delegation were scheduled to leave Thursday evening for a three-day official visit to Vietnam.