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Indonesia, Singapore relations to stay intact amid tensions over haze-related legal action

Xinhua, June 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Indonesia said on Thursday it will retain bilateral relations with Singapore amid brewing tensions between the neighboring countries over ongoing efforts from the city state to prosecute any Indonesian companies found responsible for the agricultural fires that produced hazardous haze across the region.

"Bilateral trade between Indonesia and Singapore isn't in small figures ...Such close relationship becomes an importance for the two nations," Arrmanatha Nasir, spokesman for Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Ministry, said in a press conference in Jakarta.

Singaporean investment in Indonesia is recorded at an average of 3.5 billion U.S. dollars annually, making it the top three foreign investors in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Indonesia is the second largest trading partner for Singapore amongst ASEAN member countries. Last year, their bilateral trade stood at 25.9 billion U.S. dollars, according to Nasir.

"I'm sure Indonesia is an important trading partner for Singapore, and vice versa, and so we must maintain this," Nasir says.

Under the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA) of 2014, Singapore last week demanded six suppliers of Indonesia's Asia Pulp and Paper Group for a questioning on their steps to prevent fires on their land.

The action received fierce rejection from Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla who argued that Singapore could not take any legal action on its citizens especially when "the offence occurred in Indonesia."

Indonesia's Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar echoed Kalla's statements saying that the ASEAN agreement on transboundary haze was multilateral between its country members. She also said that Singapore failed to show "mutual respect" to Indonesia's sovereignty.

Last month, Siti also told an environmental news website that her office was reviewing, and even might terminate, some joint collaborations with Singapore on forestry and haze issues.

The comments from Indonesian officials came after Singapore's National Environment Agency announced it had obtained in May a court warrant against an Indonesian company director in line with the THPA.

Last year saw the worst environmental disaster in the 21st century as over two million hectares of forest and peatland caught on inferno, causing people to flee their homes and killing 19 people from upper respiratory ailments. It also cost the Southeast Asia's biggest economy 16.1 billion U.S. dollars of losses, according to World Bank estimates.

The pollution also forced Singapore and Malaysia to shut down schools, which saw massive economic losses from disruption to its sea and air travel in the region. Endit