Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto summoned several senior officials to the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Monday for a meeting on efforts to tackle forest and land fires, as smoke from the blazes spreads across parts of Indonesia and raises concerns over cross-border haze.

Among those attending the limited meeting were National Police Deputy Chief Wahyu Hadiningrat, Deputy Minister for Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Purwadi Arianto, and Satyawan Pudyatmoko, head of the National Peatland and Mangrove Management Agency.

Chief Political and Security Affairs Dudung Abdurachman and Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian also attended.

Satyawan confirmed that the meeting would focus on forest and land fires but declined to provide details of the agenda.

“It's a meeting on forest fires. I will share the results later,” he told reporters.

Dudung said Prabowo would provide further instructions on fire prevention and response. He added that he would report on the outcome of a recent coordination meeting with ministries and government agencies aimed at strengthening the response.

“We will provide the latest update on forest fires,” Dudung said.

Indonesia continues to battle forest and land fires in several regions, particularly in six priority provinces. Smoke from the fires has spread across national borders, prompting concern from neighboring countries, including Singapore and Malaysia.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) recently detected smoke from fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan moving across Greater Jakarta, raising further concerns about the wider impact of the blazes.

Malaysia has also signaled plans to raise the issue of transboundary haze at ministerial meetings and the 49th ASEAN Summit in Manila, the Philippines. Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said Kuala Lumpur wanted the regional bloc to formally classify transboundary haze under its disaster-management framework.

Indonesia has mobilized more than 60,000 personnel and 48 helicopters and aircraft to fight forest and land fires across Sumatra and Kalimantan, Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir said last week.

Add as a preferred source on Google +