Soon after special envoys from Turkey and Armenia held talks on normalization of relations between Yerevan and Ankara on Friday in Moscow, regional and global stakeholders welcomed the effort.

Russia and the European Union immediately welcomed the talks, with the United States, NATO and Iran following suit.

“We warmly welcome the Armenian-Turkish dialogue and the involvement of the two countries in diplomacy and dialogue for resolving existing disagreements between each other,” the State Department told the Voice of America’s Armenian service.

“NATO welcomes today’s meeting in Moscow between the special envoys of [Armenia and Turkey]. NATO supports the normalization of their relations, which will help in bringing stability to the region, and we encourage Ankara and Yerevan to make further efforts,” NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs & Security Policy and Special Representative for the Caucasus & Central Asia Javier Colomina tweeted on January 14.

Official Tehran responded to the first meeting of the Armenian and Turkish special representatives in Moscow, with Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh stating at a press conference that Iran welcomes the normalization of relations between its neighbors and supports the efforts made in that direction.

“Our region is tired of the breach of relations and negative attitudes. We must help develop positive attitudes and views,” Khatibzadeh said, according to the ISNA news agency.

The special envoys from Armenia and Turkey, Ruben Rubinyan and Serdar Kilic, met on Friday in Moscow during a meeting, which was mediated by Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko.

Yerevan and Ankara issued identical statements following the meeting, saying that both sides are prepared to negotiate “without preconditions.”