In international relations a rapprochement, which comes from the French wor rapprocher ("to bring together"), is a re-establishment of cordial relations, as between two countries. In the political scene of an individual country rapprochement means the bringing together of diverse political factions as, for example, during metapolitefsi in Greece. It is often used to describe the mending of relations between the United States under Richard Nixon and the Peoples Republic of China from 1972 onwards.