The head of Indonesia's government communications agency has described its forests as a supplier of oxygen amid concerns from Singapore and Malaysia over regional haze from widespread fires.
"We're not just sending over the haze. When there's no haze, we send oxygen," Syahganda Nainggolan reportedly said.
"The oxygen from Singapore and Malaysia is from our forests, right?" Indonesian news outlet Kompas reported him saying in a report published on Saturday (Oct 10).
Syahganda also framed the forest and and land fires as a natural phenomenon, adding that the Indonesian government understood its neighbours' concerns over the resulting haze.
"We hope our neighbours understand that this is beyond human error; this is truly nature," Kompas quoted him as saying.
Syahganda added that the government is continuing to explain the haze situation to Singapore and Malaysia, including the measures being taken to address it.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had sent a representative through Malaysia's foreign minister to discuss the forest fires with Indonesia's foreign minister, Kompas reported.
"We are going into detail about the discussions so that we can overcome this situation together. This was just a few days ago, I will look into it," Syahganda said, according to Kompas.
Anwar had also spoken to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to express his concerns over the haze situation, Malaysian newspaper The Star reported.
In a separate development, Sustainability and the Environment Minister Grace Fu said Singapore is also in contact with Indonesia and ready to assist in tackling the forest fires.
"We are aware that efforts are going on. We stand ready to assist where we can," she said on Oct 10.
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