US top diplomat Blinken to visit Saudi Arabia next week

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. top diplomat Antony Blinken will visit Saudi Arabia next week for talks on security and economic issues, the State Department said on Friday, as Washington seeks to repair ties with the world's largest oil exporter.

Secretary of State Blinken's trip, which follows a visit last month by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, comes after disputes including over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents and the decision last year by the OPEC+ group to cut oil production amid high energy prices driven by the war in Ukraine.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Blinken will focus on moving forward the U.S. relationship with Riyadh.

"We're focused on the future," Kirby told reporters on Friday. "It's an important strategic partnership."

"That doesn't mean we always agree with the Saudis on everything, or that they agree with us on everything. We've certainly had differences of opinion," Kirby added.

Blinken's trip from Tuesday to Thursday will include a June 7 U.S.-Gulf Cooperation Council ministerial meeting on Middle East security and integration, according to a State Department statement.

Blinken is also scheduled to co-host a June 8 meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan on combating the Islamic State militant group, the statement said.

Riyadh has been a partner in Washington's efforts to broker a ceasefire in Sudan, with talks taking place in Jeddah, and helped get Americans out of the country safely when conflict flared in April, Kirby said, also crediting Saudi Arabia for helping maintain a truce in Yemen.

"There's an awful lot on the agenda in this bilateral relationship, a critical bilateral relationship in the Middle East," he said.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Doina Chiacu and Tyler Clifford; Editing by Tim Ahmann, Caitlin Webber and Daniel Wallis)