 In February 2017, Israel decided not to return its ambassador to New Zealand and downgraded its diplomatic relations with New Zealand to the level of chargés d'affaires, which is the lowest level of diplomatic relations.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.