PETALING JAYA, Dec15 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today the Special Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting scheduled tomorrow has been postponed, as the Thailand-Cambodia border conflict deepens and concerns mount that it could escalate.
Tuesday’s meeting was meant to bring member states together to find a solution to the ongoing tension, which has killed dozens of people from both sides, but Anwar said both Thailand and Cambodia had asked for it to be temporarily called off.
“We are still coordinating, there is some slight postponement to the foreign ministers’ meeting scheduled on Tuesday as we are still trying to get everything in order,” he said after delivering a keynote address at a book launch here.
“But we are appealing to them to stop the fighting, which is very difficult,” Anwar added, disclosing that both sides have kept in contact “on a daily basis”.
Anwar was instrumental in brokering a ceasefire between Bangkok and Phnom Penh, but the fragile peace lasted only days before tensions renewed, as both sides accused each other of violating the truce signed at the Asean Summit in October here, overseen by US President Donald Trump.
A skirmish on December 7 that reportedly wounded two Thai soldiers sparked more military action at several borders.
The two sides are battling over longstanding competing claims to patches of frontier land, some of which contain centuries-old temple ruins.
More than two dozen people on both sides of the border have officially been reported killed in the past week’s fighting, while more than half a million have been displaced.
News reports from yesterday suggested Bangkok could impose a naval blockade of the Gulf of Thailand to incapacitate Cambodia’s military capabilities by blocking critical supplies from reaching the country, although the Thai navy later denied the report as misleading.
When asked to comment on the potential blockade, Anwar replied that negotiations were ongoing.
“We’re still negotiating to get things through,” the prime minister said.
