JAKARTA, Dec 4 — The Indonesian government has extended its appreciation and gratitude to Malaysia for helping the country facing a spate of natural disasters.

Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) chief Doni Monardo extended the appreciation to Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia, Datuk Zainal Abidin Zainal, at a meeting at the BNPB headquarters here today.

"Terima kasih (thank you) to Malaysia via ambassador Datuk Zainal Abidin Bakar for helping Indonesia in the recovery process in the wake of a series of natural disasters occurred for the past two decades.

"Starting from the earthquake and tsunami in Aceh (2004), followed by earthquake in Padang (2009), then earthquake in the Nusa Tenggara, earthquake and tsunami in Palu (2018) as well as forest and plantation fires,” said Doni.

On the issue of haze caused by forest and plantation fires in Indonesia which also affected Malaysia in August and September, Doni said Indonesia had done everything it could to address the issue including concentrating on operations to eradicate, prevent and take decisive action against individuals or companies intentionally involved in open burning.

Meanwhile, Zainal Abidin said Malaysia would always support Indonesia in addressing the haze and be ready to assist and cooperate pertaining to the issues of forest fire. — Bernama