King Salman received Merkel in his palace in the western city of Jeddah, SPA state news agency said, adding that the two presided over a signing ceremony for several co-operation agreements.
Merkel was expected to discuss with the Saudis the agenda for the G20 meeting in July, including the Paris climate accord and G20 decisions on energy, according to a German official.
“There will be for sure a discussion over how Germany could support Saudi efforts to diversify its economy and reduce its dependency on fossil energy,” the official said ahead of the visit. “Economic relations are solid but not shining. The volume of commercial exchange stood at eight billion euros ($8.72bn) in 2016.
German investments in Saudi were around 1.2bn euros ($1.3bn),” the official said.
The world’s largest oil exporter has embarked on an ambitious plan to diversify its oil-dependent economy after a sharp drop in crude prices hit revenues.
Merkel will also meet Crown Prince Mohamed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, the powerful son of the king who is also defence minister. Merkel travels today to the United Arab Emirates, where German investments stand at around 2.4bn euros ($2.6bn), the German official said.
