Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev called Armenian Security Council secretary Alen Simonyan during his interview with reporters in Yerevan on Friday.

During the conversation, he said that positive trends in the opening of borders and normalization of relations with Turkey are obvious.

When asked by Armenian News-NEWS.am why the Azerbaijani delegation is not participating in the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, in Yerevan, Simonyan made reference to the fact that Armenia, similarly, did not participate in the summit held in the Azerbaijani capital Baku in 2019.

"They, like us, have a problem of explaining some topics within the country. But this cannot be projected onto relations, there is no tension and is not expected,” Simonyan said.

When asked about Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's aggressive rhetoric, Simonyan admitted that there are also bad examples, but positive trends are not often recorded.

“No less bad statements are being made from the rostrum of Armenia’s parliament and in our media, but we do not notice this. He [i.e. Aliyev] also speaks about irreversible peace, assesses everything that he calls ‘occupation,’ and could not speak in positive epithets. Therefore, there is something to work on, but let's admit that the rhetoric is changing. I said this to both Hajiyev and President Aliyev, stating: ‘Mr. President, you should know that your statements are perceived extremely sensitively in Armenia. When we talk about peace, you also have an important role. Your rhetoric is heard in Armenia.’ I do not know whether he accepted it or not, but he heard [it],” noted the secretary of the Security Council of Armenia.