Malaysia to Raise Transboundary Haze at ASEAN Meeting — SkimNews
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- Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan announced he will personally raise transboundary haze with ASEAN counterparts ahead of the 49th ASEAN Summit in Manila next month, noting haze is not classified as a natural disaster under existing ASEAN mechanisms.
- Indonesian wildfires on Borneo and Sumatra have burned for four months, producing toxic haze that forced school closures across Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Putrajaya and pushed Kuala Lumpur among the world's most polluted major cities.
- Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he discussed the crisis with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who "agreed to take the necessary steps"; Indonesia's FM Arrmanatha Nasir told Hasan that 3-4 planes and 34 helicopters are grounded because poor visibility makes aerial firefighting unsafe.
- Indonesia's Environment Ministry is investigating 19 companies potentially linked to the wildfires, with most fires on peatland deep inland where water supplies are limited.
- The 2002 ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) and the new ASEAN Coordinating Center in Jakarta, inaugurated in April, are weighted toward consensus and national sovereignty, giving governments control over how emergencies are defined and when outside help is requested, per Griffith University's Rizky Ihsan.
- Transboundary haze is largely driven by agricultural burn-off on monoculture palm oil, maize, paper pulp, and sugar plantations, compounded by vehicle emissions and dry-season forest fires.
Why it matters: The crisis exposes a structural gap: ASEAN's haze agreements require host nations to declare emergencies before outside help is requested, meaning Indonesia's sovereignty over its own firefighting response effectively controls regional relief. With Indonesia grounding its aircraft fleet due to visibility and 19 companies under investigation for ignition, Malaysia is attempting to upgrade a 23-year-old voluntary framework into something with real enforcement teeth.
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