GENEVA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Newly appointed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that China's strong support for multilateralism is "extremely positive" in light of the systemic changes the world is currently going through.

"The fact that China is a strong supporter of multilateralism and that China develops a certain number of concrete initiatives in this context is, in my opinion, an extremely positive factor that we must take into account," Guterres told the UN press corps at the United Nations Office in Geneva (UNOG).

He also said that while a number of issues remain to be addressed, Chinese President Xi Jinping's staunch commitment to multilateralism and constructive cooperation is especially topical.

"I think that both the speech made (by Xi) in Davos and the one to take place in Geneva will be a strong reaffirmation of this will...to make China play a very important role indeed in the consolidation of multilateralism," said Guterres, who took office at the beginning of the year and is currently on his first visit to the UNOG as UN secretary-general.