Razi and ibn Rushd but also to western philosophers like Bacom, Locke, Rousseau and Goethe. And when we launched the Kingdom's dialogue this time last year he quoted Alfred Lord Tennyson.So I knew that today he was going to be a tough act to follow- and so it has proved. Of course, His Royal Highness does not use this deep knowledge and learning to show off his own erudition. He does it to make a real point. It is this: over centuries different schools of thought from across the world have all contributed to our understanding of the world. As he said in Rabat, the idea of a 'clash of civilizations' is a contradiction in terms because civilization is the cumulative and collective product of human genius from many cultures. The two Kingdoms Dialogue is an example of this; through common effort and joint thinking we are helping to overcome shared challenges. We would like to think that the United Kingdom is Saudi Arabia's oldest friend and allay. Today that partnership is stronger still, fostered by two-way ties of business, pleasure and study. Many British people choose to live and work here in Saudi Arabia. And every year we welcome thousands of Saudis of all ages, to the United Kingdom. We want them to keep on coming, In that regard, I have been told that we currently operate the best visa service in town: 98 percent of visas issued within 24 hours. As you may know, we are now introducing new procedures world-wide. They should not affect the quality of our service, but if there are any problems then let us the ambassador-know. --MORE 1522 Local Time 1222 GMT
