BEIJING -- China pledged on March 8 that search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will not stop.

“The search for MH370 will continue,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary session one year after the Boeing 777 aircraft with 239 people onboard disappeared during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

“Today must be a tough day for the family members of those onboard MH370,” Wang said. “Our hearts are with you.”

His remarks came nearly two months after Malaysia officially declared the disappearance of MH370 as an accident, and all people on board, most of whom Chinese, were presumed dead.

Authorities with the southeast Asian nation have pledged to continue search for the aircraft after multinational exhaustive search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean turned up nothing.

He said that Malaysian Airlines has started its compensation work.

“We will provide all necessary assistance and services to each family of those onboard the plane,” he said. “We will help you uphold legitimate interests and lawful rights.”