On June 14, 2017, the NZ Foreign Minister Gerry Brownlee confirmed that full bilateral relations had been restored following discreet high-level contacts between the Israeli and New Zealand governments. These contacts involved a telephone conversation between Prime Minister Netanyahu and his New Zealand counterpart Prime Minister Bill English. English also penned a letter expressing regret at the fallout from UN Resolution 2334. Following the letter and phone conversation, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's director-general Yuval Rotem announced that the Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Gerbeg would be returning to Wellington to assume his duties.