JAKARTA: Jakarta and Singapore plan to set up a task force to hold businesses to account for involvement in Indonesian wildfires that have caused a regional haze crisis, the countries' foreign ministers said after meeting on Tuesday (Oct 27).
Singapore's top diplomat Vivian Balakrishnan visited the Indonesian capital to meet his counterpart, Arrmanatha Nasir, amid a diplomatic spat between the Southeast Asian nations over the pollution from the fires that have forced school closures and disrupted daily life in nearby countries.
They agreed that any companies found guilty over the fires must be brought to account.
"We discussed establishing a joint task force on strengthening business responsibility," said Arrmanatha as he and Balakrishnan addressed reporters after closed-door talks.
"It will link information sharing, financial intelligence and cross-border evidence gathering with, and where possible, hopefully, asset recovery."
They did not address Indonesia's surprise announcement just days earlier that is cutting some gas exports to Singapore.
Indonesia has struggled for months to contain the fires, which deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas says burned more than 1.9 million hectares in the nine months to September.
The haze has pushed air pollution to hazardous levels across parts of Indonesia and neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore and East Timor, prompting the ASEAN regional bloc to convene a meeting on the crisis.
Singapore has vowed to take legal action against companies found responsible for the fires that come at a time of severe drought worsened by the El Nino weather phenomenon.
Balakrishnan said "Singapore agrees" with the creation of a task force, and "we are in effect putting all the companies on notice."
Experts say Indonesia's wildfires can be blamed in large part on slash-and-burn land-clearing practices, often by timber, palm oil or mining companies, that drain peatlands and destroy fire-resistant forest cover.
Arrmanatha also used the opportunity to point out that Indonesians were heavily affected by the fires.
"On forest and land fires... let me be clear, the first victims of this fire are Indonesians," Arrmanatha said.
Balakrishnan agreed Indonesians were the "first and primary victims" but added that, unlike El Nino, "haze is not a natural phenomenon".
"The forest and land fires were caused by human action," he said.
- 'Necessary steps' -
Indonesia's upstream oil and gas regulator SKK Migas announced on the weekend that it was reducing natural gas exports to Singapore by 31 million standard cubic feet per day.
The reason, it said, was to prioritise domestic demand.
Indonesia is one of Singapore's main sources of natural gas, supplying 145.3 billion cubic feet in 2024, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.
Singapore's Energy Market Authority (EMA) said the reduction amounted to less than two percent of the city-state's total daily gas demand.
On Sunday, Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong urged countries to honour commercial contracts, and said Singapore would "will take the necessary steps to protect its rights and interests."
Indonesia's Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia on Monday denied Jakarta had breached any contracts. - AFP
