The U.S. State Department announced on the 5th that an agreement has been reached with Venezuela to restore diplomatic relations, expressing hope for collaborative efforts to promote stability in Venezuela, support economic recovery, and foster political reconciliation. Diplomatic relations between the two countries had been severed since January 2019 when Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the U.S. of interventionism and closed the Venezuelan embassy in the U.S. Following the arrest of Maduro in January this year by the Trump administration, there has been a softening of anti-American stances from interim President Rodriguez, who aims to allow foreign companies into Venezuela's oil resource development through legal reforms.