Singapore and Indonesia to launch joint task force on forest-fire accountability
Indonesia and Singapore agreed to create a bilateral task force to share information, pursue financial intelligence and recover assets from companies linked to transboundary haze-causing forest fires.
Indonesia and Singapore will set up a joint task force aimed at holding companies accountable for forest fires that generate transboundary haze, foreign ministers Arrmanatha Nasir and Vivian Balakrishnan said after talks in Jakarta on Oct. 27. The task force is expected to facilitate information sharing, financial intelligence and cross-border evidence gathering, with the possibility of recovering assets tied to firms responsible for the blazes.
"We discussed establishing a joint task force on strengthening business responsibility," Arrmanatha said at a joint press conference. "It will link information sharing, financial intelligence and cross-border evidence gathering, with, where possible, hopefully asset recovery."
"Smoke can cross borders, so can money. That is why we must follow the money trail these companies have left behind. No border should shield those who profit from burning our forests," he added.
Balakrishnan said Singapore will use all legal, regulatory and economic measures available to deter future violations and has already issued preventive-measures notices to ten Indonesian firms and requested information from ten Singapore-based companies under the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act.
"We are going to exercise all, every single legal and regulatory power, and we are prepared to use an even wider range of legal, regulatory and economic measures to deter future violations by companies," Balakrishnan said.
Both ministers highlighted Indonesia’s ongoing firefighting efforts, including ground personnel, aerial units, water-bombing and weather-modification measures, and noted that President Prabowo Subianto has made tackling the fires a national priority. They also reaffirmed the broader Singapore-Indonesia partnership, agreeing to establish a ministerial hotline and to continue cooperation across economic, energy, defence, digital and environmental areas as the two countries prepare to mark 60 years of diplomatic relations in 2027.