German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock will travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday for a two-day visit, diplomatic sources in Riyadh told the German Agency on Thursday.

Ms Burbock is expected to meet her Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan al Saud and other officials, the same sources said.

The head of German diplomacy had met her Saudi counterpart at the Munich Security Conference in February, they had informal talks on the sidelines.

According to dpa’s sources, the talks will focus on bilateral cooperation in the fields of energy and investment and conflicts in the Middle East region: the war in Yemen, the war in Sudan, the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Saudi Arabia has recently restored relations with Iran and Syria, and Damascus’ return to the Arab League is also expected to be a concern of the talks, according to the agency’s sources.

Ms Burbok’s visit will come ahead of the Arab League summit in the kingdom. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is invited, the first time he will attend the proceedings since 2011, when his country was expelled from the pan-Arab body.

Germany’s position on Syria has not changed, Berlin made clear on Monday.

The relationship between Berlin and Riyadh has been strained in recent years by the war in Yemen – in which Saudi Arabia intervened in 2015, head of a regional military alliance – and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.