ASEAN Ministerial Meeting On Transboundary Haze Pollution
Malaysia and Singapore criticized the way Indonesia handled the issue. Both urged the latter to ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. The Malaysian Environment Minister Azmi Khalid said "Frustration is an understatement", directed toward Indonesia. There was also a protest in front of the Indonesia embassy in Kuala Lumpur, organized by local political parties. Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong expressed disappointment toward Indonesia soon after Azmi Khalid made his view public. In response to the letter, Indonesian President apologized for the regional haze. Indonesia has earlier stated that it lacked the resources to combat the burning effectively.
Singapore proposed regional talks on the haze, to be held in Singapore. Indonesia, however, requested such talks to be held in Pekan Baru, Kalimantan instead. The request was agreed to and talks were held on 13 October 2006. At the meeting, Malaysia proposed the setting up of a regional fund to help combat the environmental disaster.
With the arrival of the northeastern winter monsoons in December, the haze problem was effectively ended for 2006.
Read more about this topic: 2006 Southeast Asian Haze
Famous quotes containing the words meeting, haze and/or pollution:
“Sir Francis, Sir Francis, Sir Francis is come;”
—Unknown. Upon Sir Francis Drake’s Return from His Voyage about the World, and the Queen’s Meeting Him (l. 1)
“By night we lingered on the lawn,
For underfoot the herb was dry;
And genial warmth; and o’er the sky
The silvery haze of summer drawn;”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“Like the effects of industrial pollution ... the AIDS crisis is evidence of a world in which nothing important is regional, local, limited; in which everything that can circulate does, and every problem is, or is destined to become, worldwide.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)