From Egypt to Israel and the West Bank, Mrs. Clinton dropped the penchant for plain-spoken analysis she had shown in Asia for a more formal style based on time-tested diplomatic formulations.
MOSCOW — At the end of a trip intended to reassure Russia's neighbors that the Obama administration would not forget them in its push to improve relations with Moscow, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton resorted to the simplest of diplomatic formulations, telling Georgia, the United States "can walk and chew gum at the same time".
Mr. Westerwelle did not go into detail about the expulsions, but officials said the embassy personnel were suspected of carrying out activities incompatible with their diplomatic status, a formulation that usually refers to espionage.
Meanwhile, the president and his cabinet are perpetually at war with the military and diplomatic bureaucracies over the formulation and conduct of security affairs.
Interviewees noted that the formulation of diplomatic strategy during the DPP period was directed from the Presidential office.
Instead, Mr. Hague said, Britain was reducing ties to "the lowest level consistent" with having a diplomatic relationship at all — a formulation British officials said was linked, in part, to the need for continuing contacts with Tehran on its nuclear programs.
His formulation of this thought was, of course, excruciatingly diplomatic.
The Foreign Ministry instructed its diplomatic missions around the world to use the same, more cautious, formulation, ministry officials said.
The new formulation, where 20percentt of members are countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel, will likely prove friendlier to the Palestinian cause — prompting speculation of yet another delay.
