JAKARTA: Indonesia has approved offers of assistance from neighbouring countries to help combat widespread forest and land fires, with technical discussions underway to determine the arrangements.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir said President Prabowo Subianto had approved the proposed assistance, with the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) now holding technical-level discussions on its implementation.
"Offers of assistance form neighbouring countries have already been discussed and is now being processed.
"As we know, the president has also given his approval, and the matter is now under discussion at the technical level," he told reporters after a closed-door meeting with parliament's Commission I in Jakarta.
Arrmanatha did not identify the countries involved or specify the types of assistance being considered.
Malaysia had earlier offered to deploy a Bombardier CL-415MP aircraft, three helicopters and 52 personnel to help Indonesia tackle the fires, with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announcing on Sept 19 that Prabowo had approved the offer during their meeting in Hambalang, West Java, a day earlier.
Singapore has also expressed its readiness to assist Indonesia, with Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu saying on Oct 10 that she had contacted her Indonesian counterpart, Jumhur Hidayat, to offer support in combating the fires.
Arrmanatha said the fires were receiving serious attention from Prabowo because of their significant impact on haze-affected areas, while challenging weather conditions continued to hamper firefighting efforts.
He said about 60,000 personnel had been deployed across six priority provinces, supported by helicopters and aircraft for water bombing and weather modification operations.
On regional cooperation, Arrmanatha said Indonesia had fulfilled its regular reporting obligations under the Asean Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control (ACC THPC) mechanism since August.
He said Indonesia had regularly shared data on the fire situation, mitigation measures and developments with the Asean Secretariat, which serves as the interim coordinating centre. The latest reports indicated progress, including a reduction in hotspot numbers.
Meanwhile, newly appointed BNPB chief Lieutenant General Kristomei Sianturi said he would first assess resources available to regional and central governments, alongside foreign assistance that could be expedited to strengthen firefighting operations.
"I will first take stock of our available assets, what we can already do at the regional and central government levels, and what assistance from abroad we can jointly expedite," he told reporters after his swearing-in ceremony at the State Palace on Thursday, according to a livestream by the Presidential Secretariat.
Kristomei, who replaced Lieutenant General Suharyanto as BNPB chief said combating the fires required collective action involving communities, regional administrations and the central government, rather than relying solely on the disaster management agency.
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