Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, stated that he sees Azerbaijan's practical readiness to continue steps aimed at deepening the peace process. According to him, Yerevan and Baku have agreed to continue working on unresolved issues, including the fate of detainees and missing persons.

“I see that the Azerbaijani side will take and is currently taking all the steps related to peace that it can afford,” Simonyan told reporters.

According to him, during the contacts with the Azerbaijani side, the issues of detainees and missing persons were discussed.

“Our discussion on all these issues took place, and an agreement was reached to continue deepening [the process], to introduce new mechanisms so that those issues that have not yet been resolved find their solutions,” the secretary of the Security Council of Armenia said.

Also, Simonyan emphasized the need for a gradual change in the attitude of Armenian and Azerbaijani societies towards each other.

“We must be able to change the 30-year mark in people’s attitudes also—not only in Armenia, but also in Azerbaijan,” he noted, adding that mutual visits of delegations are already taking place between the two countries, and these contacts should be continued.

Answering the question about a possible visit to Azerbaijan, Simonyan did not rule out a visit to Baku, the Azerbaijani capital.

He recalled that a meeting between the then secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan and Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev was held earlier in Dilijan, Armenia.

“I do not rule out that I will also make such a visit [to Azerbaijan]. I cannot say any timeframe or anything specific,” Simonyan added.

According to him, there is an agreement to hold another meeting, but specific dates have not been set yet.

Commenting on the fate of the Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan, Simonyan stated that Yerevan does not intend to remove this matter from the agenda.

“There is no option for us [i.e. Armenia] that we will not deal with this matter, or that this matter has been removed from the agenda for us,” he said.

At the same time, the secretary of the Security Council of Armenia noted that he did not want to judge when the matter would be finally resolved, preferring to talk about the ongoing work being done to resolve it.