Malaysia to Take Transboundary Haze to ASEAN: Foreign Minister Wants Haze Covered by Regional Disaster Mechanisms
KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said on October 12 that he will personally raise transboundary haze at meetings with his ASEAN counterparts ahead of the bloc's 49th summit in Manila next month, pushing for a regional mechanism to deal with it. Forest and land fires that have raged for months in Indonesia have in recent weeks caused thick haze in Singapore and Malaysia, which closed schools in several states last week after air pollution hit unhealthy levels.
While ASEAN has existing mechanisms to deal with natural disasters such as floods or volcanic eruptions, haze is not included in those, Mohamad told reporters. 'So this is one of the issues that I will personally bring in a meeting with my counterparts, ahead of the 49th summit in Manila next month,' he said, according to his office. Firefighting attempts in many areas were complicated by poor visibility, accessibility issues and a lack of suitable conditions for cloud seeding, he added, citing discussions with Indonesia's foreign minister. Malaysia has previously offered assistance to Indonesia to combat the fires. ASEAN chair the Philippines did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation that haze would be on the agenda; the Philippine foreign ministry later confirmed it is on the agenda for the preparatory foreign ministers' meetings in November.
The fires, mainly on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, are Indonesia's most intense in 11 years. Malaysia's domestic response has escalated step by step: Prime Minister Anwar personally called President Prabowo on October 8; the Education Ministry set up state haze-monitoring task forces on October 10 to decide school closures or home-based learning by pollution index; and Firefly cancelled its Subang–Singapore Seletar flights the same day over low visibility.
Mohamad's push names an old gap in regional governance: the haze crosses borders almost every year, yet there is no standing mechanism for responsibility or response. If November's foreign ministers' meetings formally bring haze into ASEAN's disaster-management framework, future fire seasons like this year's would, for the first time, have agreed rules for notification, assistance and accountability between neighbours.
Sources: Compiled from Reuters reporting on October 12 and October 13, 2026, on ASEAN foreign ministers tackling transboundary haze.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 烟霾中的吉隆坡天际线，servus（Flickr） 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0（Wikimedia Commons）
