Malaysia’s government has postponed a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that it has called to address the escalating border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia.
The meeting, initially scheduled for today, will now be held on December 22 after Thailand requested a delay, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced yesterday.
“We are still coordinating, monitoring. They (Thailand) have asked for a slight postponement of the Special ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, which was scheduled on Tuesday, so we are postponing to get everything in order,” Anwar said, as per Malaysia’s New Straits Times. “But we are still appealing to them to stop the fighting. Very critical. I’m in touch with them virtually on a daily basis.”
Anwar’s announcement came as the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia entered its eighth day, following the outbreak of fighting in disputed circumstances on December 7. During that time, the fighting has expanded to nearly every sector of the two nations’ 817-kilometer shared border, from the Gulf of Thailand in the west to the tri-border junction with Laos in the east. Around half a million people on both sides of the border have since been displaced by the fighting, which has included the widespread use of artillery, rocket fire, and, on the Thai side, airstrikes by F-16 and Gripen jets.
Today, Cambodia claimed that Thai forces “launched intense attacks” with infantry and heavy artillery along the border in Banteay Meanchey province. It also accused Thailand yesterday of launching F-16 strikes close to displacement camps in Chong Kal and Srei Snam districts in Siem Reap province, around 70 kilometers from the border, which the country’s Ministry of Information described as “an act of aggression” against Cambodian civilians. The Thai army has not confirmed the strikes.
In total, Cambodia claims that 15 civilians have been killed in the fighting, 73 injured, and that the number of people displaced has increased to more than 409,000. Thailand says 17 of its soldiers have been killed so far, along with one civilian, and that more than 258,000 civilians have been evacuated from border areas. Cambodia has not yet disclosed any military casualties.
In a call on December 13, Anwar informed his Vietnamese counterpart, Pham Minh Chinh, that Malaysia would chair a special meeting on the border conflict to “assess the situation, support measures to ease tensions, and strengthen ASEAN’s collective role in safeguarding regional security.”
Anwar has since announced that he had requested the deployment of an ASEAN Observer Team (AOT), led by Malaysia’s Chief of Defense Forces Mohd Nizam Jaffar, to monitor developments on the ground. The AOT will then present the ASEAN meeting with an account of the situation at the border, the true nature of which has been clouded by claims and counter-claims by Bangkok and Phnom Penh.
Anwar’s convening of the ASEAN meeting is an attempt to strengthen and reassert ASEAN’s role in the resolution of the crisis, after several failed attempts by outside actors, including Anwar and U.S. President Donald Trump, to mediate the conflict. The undeclared border war, which has followed months of tensions throughout 2025, has created another unwelcome conundrum for the Southeast Asian bloc. ASEAN’s apparent inability to resolve a conflict among two of its members has raised questions about its efficacy and arguably undermined the bloc’s claims to “centrality” in the diplomatic architecture of the region.
Anwar, who will relinquish the ASEAN chairmanship to the Philippines at the end of the month, has spoken several times to Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet over the past week, but has failed to secure a ceasefire. Cambodia’s government expressed its support for a ceasefire proposed by Anwar on December 13 – as the militarily weaker power, it has generally favored the internationalization of the crisis – while Anutin said that his government had not agreed to any ceasefire with Cambodia.
“Thailand stands firm with our determination to preserve, protect, and defend integrity of our land and our people at all cost,” he said in a Facebook post on Sunday, perhaps with an eye to the general election that will be held on February 8. Cambodia continues to defend its own actions and denounce those of its adversary in much the same terms. In a statement yesterday, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Bangkok of “armed aggression” against Cambodia, and of “serious violations of international humanitarian law and international obligations to protect civilians and cultural property.”
Also yesterday, China weighed in publicly on the conflict, adding its voice to calls for the two sides to exercise “utmost restraint” and “every possible measure conducive to a ceasefire to ensure de-escalation of tensions as soon as possible,” according to Xinhua news agency. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that since the outbreak of the fighting, “China has maintained close communication with both sides through multiple channels and levels, in light of the wishes of the two countries concerned.” Beijing “has also engaged in active mediation for peace talks to create the conditions and provide a platform for dialogue,” he added.
