"The President [Biden] will sit down in a bilateral meeting with King Salman and his leadership team. As you know, the Crown Prince is on that leadership team, so he'll be a part of that meeting," Kirby said during a press briefing. "[T]he President will be seeing the Crown Prince in the context of that larger bilateral discussion."
During the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit on July 16 in which US President Joe Biden will participate energy security will "clearly" be a topic of discussion, Kirby told journalists.
"Clearly, energy security will be a topic of discussion," Kirby said.
The GCC is a regional political and economic union of Middle Eastern countries - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Earlier in the day Axios reported that White House coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk has traveled to Saudi Arabia to finalize the preparations for US President Joe Biden’s visit to that country scheduled for July 15.
Biden will travel to the Middle East from July 13-16 and is expected to visit Israel, including the occupied territories in the West Bank, and Saudi Arabia for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit on July 16.
A senior Biden administration official said in mid-June that the president's trip to Saudi Arabia could shape his administration's goals in the region for the second half of 2022 and 2023.
Biden is expected to address the soaring energy prices during his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders.
However, Biden said on multiple occasions that he is not planning to ask the Saudis to increase oil production amid soaring gas prices in the United States and around the world.