Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has declared that there are “good chances” for normalizing relations with Armenia, Interfax.az reports.

“The recent meeting of the foreign ministers, as well as the meeting of the deputy prime ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia on border delimitation show that there are good chances for a settlement. As I said relatively recently, we are now closer to peace than ever before,” Aliyev told reporters after meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Baku on Sunday, March 17.

The Azerbaijani President maintained that the parties are “very close to a breakthrough.”

The head of state emphasized that “today we are in the active phase of peace negotiations with Armenia.”

Aliyev added that Armenia and Azerbaijan have had seven rounds of exchanging comments on the draft peace agreement.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan recently responded to Baku’s expectations for Azerbaijani citizens to pass through the territory of Armenia, bypassing border procedures and customs control. “We are confident that Armenia can ensure the safety of passengers passing through its territory, we can facilitate procedures, modern, innovative technologies can be useful in this matter, but no one can enter or leave our country without proper registration,” Mirzoyan said.