Jakarta. Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi offered President Prabowo Subianto some fire-fighting help on Friday as the neighbor plans to deploy helicopters.

Zahid is on a visit to Indonesia amid fires that have torched parts of the country's forests. The haze from the flames has crossed borders, including Malaysia, whose air quality continues to go from bad to worse. After months of severe transboundary smoke, Indonesia is now opening its doors for foreign help to tame the flames.

Speaking to the press with Zahid on his side, Prabowo said that Malaysian assistance of three helicopters, an aircraft, and 52 personnel would come to the rescue.

“Malaysia had done this a few years ago,” Prabowo said, alluding to when Kuala Lumpur deployed a water-bombing aircraft to South Sumatra in 2015.

Prabowo revealed that the Indonesian government would “formulate comprehensive measures” to prevent forest fires from recurring every few years. The Indonesian leader went on to say that Jakarta had been on “very good terms” with Malaysia. 

“Let’s not turn things that bother us into something that is blown out of proportion,” he remarked.

Three Japanese Chinook helicopters are extinguishing the fires in West Kalimantan. Prabowo claimed to have received offers from other countries, while describing the fires as an “environmental problem that affects many parties”.

“Our neighbors also suffer the impact. They want to help us, and it is something that we gladly accept,” Prabowo said.

The haze problem surged significantly in August.

A day earlier, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said that Jakarta had not received any formal haze complaint from its ASEAN neighbors. The ministry’s spokesman Vahd Nabyl A Mulachela said that Indonesia and other ASEAN members had kept each other posted about the haze movements and what is being done on the ground.

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