U.S. President Joe Biden urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during an October meeting in Rome to open the country’s border with landlocked Armenia, Bloomberg reports citing a senior Turkish official.

The report comes amid information from Ankara that Turkey and Armenia will mutually appoint envoys as part of normalization steps between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Monday, December 13 that Turkey will work to normalize ties with Armenia and start charter flights to its capital city of Yerevan.

Bloomberg believes that Turkey hopes that taking steps to normalize ties with Armenia will help Ankara improve its strained relations with Washington over its purchase of Russia air defenses. After the meeting between Biden and Erdogan, the two countries set up a mechanism to address issues that have poisoned relations between the two NATO allies that share broader security and economic interests.