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........

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