"The American vice president is expected in Germany for the Munich Security Conference" held on February 14-16, said Chancellor Olaf Scholz's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.

Scholz will also attend the conference, which is hosted annually at the Bayerischer Hof hotel in the southern German city.

Hebestreit did not confirm whether Scholz and Vance would hold talks in Munich but said the two would "of course" meet if time allowed.

Before attending the conference, Vance is expected to travel to Paris where he will participate in an artificial intelligence summit on February 10-11.

Vance's visit to Munich comes in the middle of an election campaign in Germany and with the relationship between Berlin and the new US administration under strain.

Scholz has sharply criticised Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a close advisor to US President Donald Trump, for offering his support to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Musk has previously said the AfD is the "last ray of hope" for Germany and hosted a discussion with AfD top candidate Alice Weidel on his social media platform X.

The Tesla CEO also wrote an opinion column in the German newspaper Welt justifying his interventions and reiterating his backing for the AfD.

Vance shared Musk's post on X linking to the newspaper piece and describing it as "interesting".

"I'm not endorsing a party in the German elections, as it's not my country and we hope to have good relations with all Germans," Vance said in the post. "But this is an interesting piece."

Scholz, when asked about Musk's support for the AfD last month, said Germany guarantees free speech but stressed that "what we do not accept is if this is supporting extreme right positions".

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