Saudi Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz arrived in Paris Monday to begin an important trip spanning several days that will include consultations and meetings at highest level, starting Monday evening with an official dinner as the guest of President Francois Hollande.
The Saudi official, also deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, is also scheduled to meet separately on Wednesday with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, in addition to visiting several institutions in Paris during his stay. UNESCO is among the visits Prince Salman is to carry out.
While no official statements have been made about the meetings, diplomats indicated that "very likely" topics for discussion would be Iraq and Syria and the current turmoil in these countries because of operations by the Islamic State militias, which are threatening stability in the region.
As the international community gears up to form a coalition to fight the Islamic State radicals, France and Saudi Arabia are to exchange views on this enterprise, with Paris already proposing to host a conference in the coming weeks to bring the "Coalition" members together.
France has clearly stated it will not cooperate with the Bashar Al-Assad regime in Damascus in any coalition against the Islamic State.
Saudi Arabia, recognising the danger of the Islamic State groups, has publicly urged "rapid" action to counter them and has warned that these groups also threaten the West and not just Arab countries.
The volatile situation in Lebanon, with internal divisions and the threat of radicals spilling over from Syria, is also expected to be high on the agenda. Both nations agree on the need to bolster Lebanon and are cooperating on helping support the Lebanese army to help it resist external threats and keep order.
France has agreed to supply the Lebanese army with weapons and training and Saudi Arabia says it will participate to financially back that operation.
Iran's nuclear programme and talks in this area, as well as the stalled Middle East peace process and the Israeli aggression against Gaza are also items likely to be on the agenda, diplomats said.
Prince Salman and Hollande are also expected to broach bilateral cooperation in a number of domains but diplomats said that "no agreements will be signed" on Monday.