The United States and Russia separately welcomed the announcement that Turkey and Armenia will appoint special envoys to explore normalization of ties between Ankara and Yerevan.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his support to the processes, welcoming the process.

“We welcome and strongly support statements by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and MFA of Armenia on appointing Special Envoys to discuss the process of normalization,” Blinken said in a Twitter post on Wednesday.

The announcement of this initiative was made Monday by Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu during a speech in parliament, where he also said that the entire process was being coordinated with Baku.

On Tuesday, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry welcomed Cavusoglu’s remarks and confirmed “that the Armenian side also will appoint a special representative for the dialogue.”

Russia on Wednesday welcomed the “logical and reasonable step” of appointing special envoys.

“We assume that the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations will contribute to the improvement of the general situation in the region, will contribute to the formation of an atmosphere of neighborliness, trust and confidence in the region and among the peoples. From this point of view, we welcome Ankara’s and Yerevan’s recent willingness to start a bilateral dialogue to discuss normalization of relations,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters on Wednesday.

“We are ready to support that process by all means,” Zakharova concluded.

The Russian foreign ministry last month said that Yerevan had asked Moscow to mediate the normalization of ties with Ankara.