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Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a press conference here on Wednesday that Malaysian cabinet has discussed the next phase of the search for the missing MH370, which involved the issue of cost sharing between Australia and Malaysia.
Hishammuddin said a tripartite meeting among Malaysia, Australia and China would be held next week in Australia.
"In addition, the Malaysian delegation will also sign a Memorandum of Understanding between Malaysia and Australia that has been approved by both governments," said the official.
On the asset deployment front, the minister said a Royal Malaysian Navy vessel encountered a starboard engine problem and was on its way to Jakarta to evaluate the extent of the damages and to undergo repairs, while another vessel was going back to Malaysia after completing its task.
However, said the minister, "contracted assets will be deployed as Malaysian Government Furnished Equipment for the search."
He said PETRONAS together with DEFTECH and Phoenix International would deploy a Prosas Side Scan Sonar (Towed Synthetic Aperture Sonar) which would be mounted on the GO Phoenix mother vessel to join the search and recovery works for MH370.
As to the search area, Hishammuddin said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) was continuing refinement works with the MH370 Strategy Search Group (SSG) which consisted members from the NTSB Australia, Boeing, AAIB UK, Inmarsat, Thales DSTO in narrowing down the search location of the aircraft.
