WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department began firing more than 1,350 U.S.-based employees on Friday as the administration of President Donald Trump presses ahead with an unprecedented overhaul of its diplomatic corps, a move critics say will undermine U.S. ability to defend and promote U.S. interests abroad.

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

State Department to release letter to all employees Thursday evening informing them that it's officially moving to implement “targeted reduction in domestic workforce.”

The State Department is firing more than 1,300 people on Friday as part of a dramatic overhaul of the agency, according to an internal notice seen by CNN.

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.

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.

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.

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,