Thai ambassador to the United States Mr. Veerachai Plasai died today in Washington DC after being admitted to Johns Hopkins hospital for medical treatment. He was 58 years old.

While the cause of death is not yet confirmed, it has been reported that he died of myelodysplastic syndromes, a type of cancer where abnormal blood cells form in the bone marrow.

Mr. Veerachai was well known as  head of the Thai legal team in the territorial dispute with Cambodia, over the Phra Vihear temple compound, at the International Court of Justice in 2013.

The late ambassador joined Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2004 in the Arab and African division and quickly climbed the ladder, becoming deputy director-general of Economics Department. A year later, he was promoted to director-general of the International Economics Department and then director-general of the Treaties and Legal Affairs Department the following year.

He was appointed ambassador to The Netherlands in 2009, ambassador to the United Nations in New York and then ambassador to the United States.