European Union welcomes the recent phone conversation between the Armenian Prime Minister and Turkish President, considers it a very important step in the process of normalization of relations between the two countries and will follow its course, the head of the EU delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, said this in an interview with Radio Liberty.

She said that the EU, especially President of the European Council Charles Michel, welcomed the efforts to promote the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey.

The ambassador noted that they are waiting for more concrete steps to normalize Armenian-Turkish relations. She said that there was a proposal on the table to open the Armenian-Turkish border to citizens of third countries.

Contacts between Yerevan and Ankara have markedly intensified in the previous two weeks. On 1 July, after the fourth meeting between Armenian and Turkish representatives in Vienna - Armenian Parliament Vice Speaker Ruben Rubinyan and Ambassador Serdar Kilic - the sides said they had agreed to allow citizens of third countries to cross the Armenian-Turkish land border as soon as possible and to start direct air cargo transportation.

Almost a week later, at the government session, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan tasked the Armenian agencies to work with the Turkish state structures to implement the agreement as soon as possible.

Pashinyan and Erdogan had their first telephone conversation on Monday, during which the two leaders expressed hope that the agreements reached in Vienna will be realized soon.

However, the official bodies of Armenia and Turkey keep silent about what kind of works will be carried out towards the implementation of the mentioned agreements, what timeframe is in question or in which direction the border will be opened - Gyumri, Margara or both? The Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure is dealing with transportation issues in Armenia, and as it did last week, so it did today, promising to provide details later.

Pashinyan and Erdogan's phone conversation was positively received in Washington and Moscow. U.S. State Department said the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations will positively affect the entire region. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow consistently supports Yerevan-Turkish normalization of ties and is ready to further accompany the Armenian-Turkish dialogue.

Turkish newspaper GazeteKars recently wrote that according to its information, representatives of an Israeli company are carrying out demining works on the Armenian-Turkish border in Kars. The Armenian Defense Ministry told Radio Liberty that such works are not carried out on the Armenian side.