Transitions are always difficult, said an experienced European diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"The killing changed the history of the country," says an experienced diplomat in Bujumbura.

She was only nineteen, after all, and hardly an experienced diplomat.

Rutledge is an experienced diplomat, and the positions he takes are not his own, obviously.

He is simply an experienced diplomat who suffers from having ideas of his own - which member nations can accept or reject.

It was simply the face of an experienced diplomat.

He was an experienced diplomat skilled at revealing little.

They have to be forced out of power," said an experienced non-American diplomat here.

You would want an experienced diplomat, trusted in world capitals.

An experienced diplomat, he found himself looking forward to the experience, having never dealt with the enigmatic people before.