RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s powerful Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman travels to Paris next week to reinforce growing ties between the two countries, the French embassy in Riyadh said on Thursday.

Prince Mohammed, 30, will hold talks on Monday with President Francois Hollande.

On Tuesday, the Saudi royal is to co-host the third Saudi-French joint committee with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. Mohammed, a driving force for change in the conservative kingdom, is Saudi Arabia’s defence minister and chairs the main economic coordinating body, the Council of Economic Affairs and Development.

Second in line to the throne, he is behind the kingdom’s wide-ranging Vision 2030 plan to diversify Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent economy. The plan, unveiled in April, is complemented by the National Transformation Programme which sets five-year targets for a tripling of non-oil revenue and other measures.

Since mid-June, Prince Mohammed has been in the United States where he met President Barack Obama and has held talks with major US corporations.