In the afternoon of March 8, 2014, Premier Li Keqiang held emergency telephone talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak at his request.

Li Keqiang said, there are 154 Chinese passengers on board of the Malaysia Airlines passenger flight that lost contact early this morning. The Chinese government and the people are gravely concerned about the safety of the Chinese passengers and all 239 passengers on board. We have activated the emergency mechanism and dispatched specialized search and rescue vessels and marine police boats to the relevant sea areas to make all-out efforts to engage in the search and emergency rescue work.

Li Keqiang said, time means life, and the human life is above all else. The top priority now is to find out immediately what has happened and intensify the search and rescue efforts through all possible channels. We hope that Malaysia, Vietnam and other countries concerned to make all-out efforts, to cooperate with each other, to find the missing plane as soon as possible, thus to seize the golden time for finding survivors, and do the utmost to conduct search and rescue operations. Meanwhile, the families and relatives of the passengers on board should be well placated. China stands ready to keep close cooperation with Malaysia and I myself will keep close contact with you all the time.

Najib Razak firstly extended his sincere apology to China for the loss of contact of the Malaysia Airlines passenger flight, and his deep sympathy and condolences to the families of the Chinese passengers. Najib said that Malaysia is working closely with relevant countries to locate the missing flight as quickly as possible and carrying out an all-out search and rescue operation. Malaysia will also send a work team to Beijing to help manage the related works and is willing to maintain close contact and cooperation with China in this regard.