UN chief seeks China's support

TIANJIN:

China's role in upholding multilateralism is fundamental, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Chinese president Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a security forum meeting on Saturday.

Xi in turn said China would always be a "reliable partner" to the UN and continue to provide "stability and certainty".

Guterres is in China's northern port city of Tianjin for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, where Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders from Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Middle East will gather with Xi in a powerful show of Global South solidarity.

"In this moment in which multilateralism is under fire, the support of China...is an extremely important element to preserve," he said, according to a media pool report.

"We see new forms of policy that are sometimes difficult to understand, that sometimes look more like a show than the serious diplomatic efforts and in which business and politics seem sometimes also mixed," Guterres said.