30/6/2013
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia, Indonesia and
Singapore have discussed the way forward on mitigating the risk of haze, which
has affected the three countries in the past weeks.
The discussion was done in an informal
trilateral meeting initiated by Malaysia on the sidelines of the 46th Asean
Foreign Ministers Meeting in Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei yesterday.
Foreign Minister Anifah Aman attended the
meeting with his counterparts from Indonesia and Singapore, Dr. RM Marty
M.Natalegawa and K.Shanmugam respectively.
According to a statement from the
Asean-Malaysia National Secretariat of the Foreign Affairs Ministry here today,
among the practical ways to mitigate the risk of haze discussed in the meeting
included the expeditious ratification and operationalization of the Asean
Transboundary Haze Pollution Agreement. “The ministers had a frank, candid and
constructive discussion on the recent problem caused by haze that affected many
parts of Peninsular Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore,” it said.
During the meeting, the ministers noted
the improving situation in the affected areas in Sumatra whereby the acreage
had reduced from 16,500 hectares to 4,081 hectares. They also noted that as of
June 28, 2013, the number of hotspots dropped to 7 from 261 due to cloud seeding
and water bomber operations undertaken by the Indonesian government as well as
the favourable and precipitous weather condition.
“The ministers also agreed that further
discussions on the haze issue would be taken up at the 46th AMM. In the spirit
of Asean solidarity, the ministers agreed that the rest of the Asean family
would be updated and kept abreast on the issue surrounding the three
countries,” said the statement.
Anifah is leading the Malaysian delegation
to the 46th AMM in Bandar Seri Begawan from June 29 to July 2. Bernama
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