KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 ― Malaysia is prepared to deploy more military assets, as well as assets from relevant agencies, to help douse the forest fires in Indonesia.

Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said discussion had been held with the relevant agencies, including the Fire and Rescue Department, and also to deploy more assets, like the Hercules C130, for cloud seeding.

“I have discussed with (Minister of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government) Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan on how the Fire and Rescue Department and the Smart team can help us, and on how we can deploy more aircraft, like the Hercules C130, for cloud seeding in Indonesia,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.

Currently, he said, the Bombardier CL 415 belonging to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) was deployed to douse the forest fires in Indonesia and the aircraft was now back in the country for maintenance.

“The Bombardier is back for maintenance for a while only because in this region only Malaysia has the aircraft.

“We have two, but one is under maintenance. God willing, we can deploy the aircraft back to Indonesia end of the year,” he added. ― Bernama