Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s plan to downsize a “bloated” department had been on hold after a court ruling.

The department is sending layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic assignments in the United States, said a senior State Department official.

The State Department has formally advised staffers that it will be sending layoff notices to some of them soon.

The State Department informed U.S.-based employees on Thursday that it would soon be laying off nearly 2,000 workers as part of a plan to downsize its domestic workforce.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio began mass firings at the State Department on Monday, part of a reorganization plan to form a leaner foreign policy force that, he argues, will allow the United

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting. The United States and China disagree on various issues, including trade, Taiwan and Russia's war in Ukraine.

The U.S. secretary of state met with his Russian counterpart on the sidelines of a gathering of Southeast Asian nations, where he also defended new U.S. tariff threats.

There is a possiblity that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, will attend the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur this October, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He said discussions on the matter were underway to finalise the date for the ASEAN-US Special Summit,