Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a phone conversation on Monday on the diplomatic normalization process to end decades-long hostilities between the two neighbors.

The two leaders expected the steps agreed upon in the Vienna meetings earlier this month will be implemented soon, Erdogan’s office said in a statement.

They agreed that the normalization between Turkey and Armenia will “contribute to the strengthening of peace and stability in the region,” it said.

The two leaders also exchanged holiday greetings on the occasions of Eid al-Adha in Turkey and the upcoming Vardavar Festival in Armenia, it noted.

Representatives of the two countries met in Vienna on July 1 for the fourth round of talks on normalization, where they agreed on taking new steps to push forward the process, including moves to enable border-crossing for third-country travelers and direct air cargo trade between Turkey and Armenia at the earliest possible date.

After the first bilateral meeting was held on Jan. 14 in the Russian capital of Moscow, the two countries in February resumed charter flights between Turkey’s largest city Istanbul and the Armenian capital of Yerevan.

Relations between the two countries were severed in 1993 during the first war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh when Turkey closed the border with Armenia in support of Azerbaijan. ■