Malaysia, Indonesia in high-level contact over haze as Jakarta deploys 60,000 to fight fires, says Indonesian minister
Malaysia is pressing Indonesia to contain forest and land fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan that have sent haze across the border, with Jakarta responding by deploying more than 60,000 personnel and 48 helicopters to…
Source: Malay Mail · October 12, 2026 at 3:02 AM · AI-assisted report
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JAKARTA, 12 OCTOBER 2026 —
Malaysia is pressing Indonesia to contain forest and land fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan that have sent haze across the border, with Jakarta responding by deploying more than 60,000 personnel and 48 helicopters to battle the blazes, Indonesian Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir said on Saturday.
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The scale of the mobilisation underscores the transboundary nature of the annual fire season, which this year has intensified under El Niño conditions that bring drier weather and heighten drought risk across the Indonesian archipelago. Smoke from the fires has already degraded air quality in parts of Malaysia and Singapore, prompting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to telephone Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto earlier this week to seek urgent action.
Arrmanatha, widely known as Tata, told reporters at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base in Jakarta that he had briefed Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan on Indonesia’s response following the leaders’ conversation. “Yes, we have been in contact with Malaysia.
I have spoken to the Malaysian Foreign Minister and explained the measures Indonesia is taking, including deploying more than 60,000 personnel and using 48 helicopters, as well as aircraft for cloud seeding and water-bombing operations,” he said.
Anwar confirmed on Thursday that he had raised the haze directly with Prabowo. “The haze issue is indeed worrying. I have contacted President Prabowo, and he agreed to take the necessary measures,” the Malaysian prime minister said. The Indonesian deployment includes cloud-seeding flights intended to induce rainfall and water-bombing runs targeting active hotspots in Sumatra and Kalimantan, the two regions identified as the primary sources of the smoke affecting neighbouring countries.
Arrmanatha acknowledged that the fires remained a challenge despite the large-scale effort, expressing hope that forecast rainfall would assist containment. “We hope the fires will subside soon, as rain is forecast,” he said. Meteorological agencies have linked this year’s heightened fire activity to the El Niño phenomenon, which typically suppresses rainfall over the western Pacific and maritime Southeast Asia, leaving forests and peatlands unusually dry and prone to ignition.
Experts have long identified slash-and-burn land clearance and the drainage of peatlands for agriculture as structural factors that make the landscape more susceptible to fire. Once ignited, peat fires can smoulder underground for weeks and are notoriously difficult to extinguish without sustained heavy rain or flooding. Government figures showed that more than 202,000 hectares had been affected by fires between January and July, although the data has not been updated since then.
The extent to which Malaysia continues to be affected will depend on whether Indonesia can bring the fires under control and on prevailing wind patterns that determine the movement and dispersal of smoke. Both governments have signalled a commitment to close coordination, with the foreign ministers’ conversation on Saturday marking the latest high-level contact aimed at managing the cross-border impact of a crisis that recurs each dry season.
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