The announcement comes after Jokowi told a coordination meeting on forest and land fires on Tuesday that he felt embarrassed about visiting the two nations, given that the issue of haze made headlines in Malaysia and Singapore, with recent local reports saying that Kuala Lumpur was pointing the finger mostly at forest fires in Sumatra.

"I was sometimes embarrassed. This week I plan to visit Malaysia and Singapore. But just last week, haze was a headline," Jokowi said, ordering government agencies to work hard to tackle the fires.

Malaysian newspaper The Star reported last Friday that the Malaysian Meteorological Department had detected haze over Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Negeri Sembilan and Penang, claiming that the smoke had come from forest fires in Riau.

Singapore, meanwhile, released its first daily haze advisory for the year on Sunday, according to The Straits Times. Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA) said at that time that the city-state could experience slightly hazy conditions if there was further hotspot activity in Sumatra.

Six provinces declared wildfire emergencies, namely Riau, South Sumatra and Jambi in Sumatra and West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan.

Yet, the transboundary haze issue “is so far not on the agenda" for Jokowi in his upcoming visits to Malaysia and Singapore, the Foreign Ministry's Southeast Asia director, Denny Abdi, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

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