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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed Friday's agreement on the delimitation of the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"The Secretary-General has been closely following the normalization process between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He welcomes the agreement reached on 19 April between the respective State Commissions on the delimitation of the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan and encourages the parties to continue the delimitation and demarcation of the remaining sections of the border and tackle all outstanding bilateral issues toward achieving full normalization of relations," his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.

Armenia has agreed to hand over four border villages to Azerbaijan as the initial step in defining the frontier between the two countries.

A statement issued by the Armenian Foreign Ministry said that the agreement was reached at the eighth meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Shahin Mustafayev that was held at a border section on April 19.

"At the initial stage of the delimitation process, the Parties have preliminary agreed upon separate sections of the borderline immediately between the settlements of Baghanis (Republic of Armenia) - Baghanis Ayrum (Republic of Azerbaijan), Voskepar (Republic of Armenia) - Ashaghi Askipara (Republic of Azerbaijan), Kirants (Republic of Armenia) - Kheyrimli (Republic of Azerbaijan) and Berkaber (Republic of Armenia) - Ghizilhajili (Republic of Azerbaijan), in order to of bring them into compliance with the legally justified interrepublican border that existed within the Soviet Union at the moment of its dissolution," reads the statement.