Good haze meeting with Malaysia, Indonesia: Shanmugam

Today Online 14 Aug 13;

HUA HIN (Thailand) — Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed on an outcome document for their leaders on the haze issue.

Singapore’s Foreign Minister K Shanmugam said a meeting with his counterparts from Malaysia and Indonesia has yielded an agreement on a number of haze-related issues.

The document was agreed upon at a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of an ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin.

The two-day ASEAN meeting was to prepare the agenda for strategic talks between the grouping and China later this month.

The choking haze that engulfed Singapore and Malaysia in June - the worst since 1997 - led to diplomatic tension in the region.

It highlighted the renewed need for cooperation among Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia - the three countries most affected.

As illegal slash-and-burn practices continue predominantly on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, there has been little progress made to hold international palm oil and pulp wood companies responsible.

One thorny issue that came up at the last high-level meetings on the haze last month was Singapore’s request for concession maps to identify exactly which areas the haze comes from in both Indonesia and Malaysia.

Issues of information security and transparency were cited as reason for not furnishing the maps. At the meeting this week, both countries maintained their stance, saying they risk competitiveness and legal issues if detailed maps are given out.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natelegaw said: “Indonesia has its own national monitoring system. Malaysia no doubt has one. Singapore is developing a system as well. Overarching all this, we have the ASEAN monitoring system. So we must all contribute to ASEAN’s capacity in this area.

“So it’s not a question of providing data to this and that. It’s just us utilising the national system that we have.”

But for now, Singapore is satisfied with the cooperation going forward.

Mr Shanmugam said: “The only difficulty that we have is the concession maps are based on Internet and what people have been able to find.

“Of course, the official concession maps will be in Indonesia and that is something that we will have to work through.

“I think we have a common target, all of us, to deal with the issues. And in Singapore we have indicated that we are intent on moving forward.

“So, we have developed a haze monitoring system. That’s a fact. That’s the one that the environment ministers in July were presented with and they welcomed our efforts in developing it and agreed that it should be presented to the leaders.

“I think our primary objective is to take steps in a cooperative way between the three countries to reduce the possibility of this happening and that can’t be done just by Singapore.

“The fires originate elsewhere...in this case, in Sumatra and that has to be dealt with. We have put forward our proposals.”

A major issue not discussed at the Hua Hin meeting was a Code of Conduct (COC) under the ASEAN Declaration on disputed islands in the South China Sea agreed upon by the parties involved.

Despite the gestures of goodwill and friendship, much more needs to be hammered out ahead of the 10th celebration of the China-ASEAN strategic partnership later this month. CHANNEL NEWSASIA