Jakarta. Indonesia is pushing ASEAN members to ratify an agreement on a regional haze control center, although Jakarta itself has yet to complete the approval procedures.

Last year, the Southeast Asian bloc struck an agreement on forming a center to quickly curb transboundary toxic air pollution. The treaty names Indonesia — whose forest fires have led to the regional haze — as the host country of the facility. Expectations are mounting to get the plan in motion.

According to Ina Hagniningtyas Krisnamurthi, a senior diplomat at the Foreign Ministry, the underlying agreement will require the ratification of at least six ASEAN members for the center to go live.

“To this day, Vietnam is the only one that has ratified the document. … This Indonesia-based center will be a game-changer. It will strengthen the earlier regional agreement on the haze and our past attempts to push for a monitoring system,” Ina told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday. 

“The center must be up and running. If not, what’s the point of setting up a center ‘with no legs’? We must immediately implement what we have been seeking through it.”

Ina did not give a timeline for when Jakarta will ratify the agreement on the facility dubbed the AAC THPC (ASEAN Coordinating Center for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control).

Months earlier, Indonesia already launched the secretariat office of this facility. The government decided to have the center within the Environment Ministry.

In a separate presser, Singapore's Environment Minister Grace Fu recently gave her word that the city-state would submit its ratification instrument “in the next few days”. Singapore “strongly encourages” other members to follow in its footsteps, according to Fu. 

To parliament, Fu talked of the upcoming joint task force between Indonesia and Singapore “to strengthen information sharing and ensure closer coordination”. She added: “We welcome the steps taken by Indonesia on the ground to prioritize fire prevention as a long-term solution.” 

The haze problem, coupled with gas cuts and persistent sharp rhetoric, has strained Indonesia-Singapore ties.

Both sides, however, recently launched plans to set up a joint task force where they will share financial intelligence on companies linked to the wildfires. 

Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir said that “breaking the chain of irresponsible business practices requires a ‘follow the money’ approach”.

Just recently, Arrmanatha met forestry chief Raja Juli Antoni and Environment Minister Jumhur Hidayat to discuss the plan. Finance Ministry’s senior officials were in the room. 

The smog is expected to dampen ASEAN’s leaders-level gathering in Manila later this month.

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