The summit started with a recitation of verses of the Holy Quran. Then, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud delivered the following speech: "In the name of Allah, the most Merciful, the most gracious. All praise is due to Allah, and Allah's peace and blessings be upon His messenger. Mr. President Donald Trump of the United States of America; Your Majesty, Excellencies and Highnesses: I welcome you in your second country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. May the leaders of the Arab and Muslim worlds allow me to welcome His Excellency President Donald Trump of the United States of America to an unprecedented historic summit that is being held at a very important and extremely serious time. Our meeting with His Excellency President of the United States of America, a country enjoying strong bonds of friendship and relationship with many of our countries, does reflect His Excellency's keenness on enhancing cooperation and coordinating stances in various fields. The meeting significantly shows that our 55 Arab and Islamic countries attending the summit today with a population exceeding 1.5 billion, are an important partner in fighting the forces of extremism and terrorism and achieving world peace, security and stability. His Excellency holds many hopes and aspirations for cooperation with the Arab and Muslim world. As we extend our thanks to and appreciation of His Excellency for his response to attend and participate in this summit, we reaffirm our happiness and gratitude for His Excellency's choice of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and this summit as His Excellency's first trip and external participation since assuming office. This does reflect the care given by His Excellency and his country to this summit. At the same time, we reaffirm that we share His Excellency the same noble feelings in terms of constructive cooperation to renounce extremism and work on countering terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, drying-up its sources, stopping all means of financing or disseminating terrorism, and firmly addressing this serious scourge on humanity as a whole. We are meeting today at this summit to express the seriousness in taking rapid steps to promote a genuine partnership with the friendly United States of America in a way that serves our common interests and contributes to achieving security, peace and development for all mankind, which is confirmed by our Islamic religion. --More 19:02 LOCAL TIME 16:02 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w410005