KUALA LUMPUR: A decade after measures to tackle the annual haze in the region were mooted, all 10 members of the regional body have ratified the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.
This was after Indonesia deposited the instrument on the agreement with the regional body’s headquarter’s in Jakarta.
The Director General for ASEAN Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, deposited Indonesia’s Instrument of Ratification of the agreement with Asean Secretary-General Le Luong Minh on Monday.
Puja also conveyed Indoensia’s appreciation to the ASEAN Secretariat and the other ASEAN Member States (AMS) for the support and encouragement extended to Indonesia in concluding the ratification process.
He informed Asean Secretary-general that the ratification of the Agreement was approved by Indonesia’s Parliament through Law No. 26 Year 2014.
Minh, meanwhile congratulated Indonesia for the ratification and commended the country for its efforts and commitment to working collectively with other AMS to address the transboundary haze pollution issues under the framework of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.
The governments of the ten ASEAN Member Countries signed the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) on June 10, 2002, here, and it entered into force on November 25, 2003.
The Agreement is the first regional arrangement in the world that binds a group of contiguous states to tackle transboundary haze pollution resulting from land and forest fires.
It has also been considered as a global role model for the tackling of transboundary issues. With Indonesia’s ratification, the Agreement has now been ratified by all ASEAN Member States.