At a briefing on December 26, Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonyan said that Azerbaijan is taking steps to establish peace in the South Caucasus; an agreement between Yerevan and Baku is possible.

"Peace has never been so close. We are promoting the peace process. The Azerbaijani side also has a similar approach. They are taking steps in this direction," he noted, adding that the basic principles of the upcoming peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan have already been agreed upon. "Some questions remain, but I think we can resolve this through negotiations," Simonyan added.

Notably, Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev met in St. Petersburg. They discussed issues related to the peace agenda. Pashinyan's Spokesperson Nazeli Baghdasaryan noted: "Informal contacts between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev took place at the informal summit of the CIS. Issues related to the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace agenda were discussed. The discussions were held in a bilateral format."

Russia expresses optimism 

On the same day, Russian Presidential Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan stated their readiness to finalize the peace treaty.

According to him, Russia supports this step: "The main thing is that we see the political will of both sides - Baku and Yerevan. Of course, we support it. We believe that the signing of such an agreement will be beneficial for both countries and stability in the entire region."