Belt and Road, UN agenda mesh

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that the China-led Belt and Road Initiative can be a "very important instrument" to meet the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

"So I'm expecting to participate in the discussion to see how we can extract the maximum possible value of the Belt and Road Initiative for global inclusive and sustainable development," he told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.

Guterres, who will attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing on Sunday and Monday, called it an excellent opportunity to see all the important infrastructure projects that the initiative is developing in different parts of the world.

"Multilateralism is the solution to global problems. And China has been a strong pillar of multilateralism," said Guterres, of Portugal. "When we look at BRI, we see a very important contribution to this solidarity in addressing global problems with international cooperation, where China plays a very central role. So I'm very happy to have the chance to participate in this Belt and Road summit."

So far, 28 heads of state and governments have confirmed their plans to attend the forum, which will be the highest-level international meeting since the initiative was proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013.

More than 100 countries and international organizations have supported the initiative, and more than 40 have signed cooperation agreements with China, which has invested more than $50 billion in related programs.

The secretary-general said the initiative and UN 2030 Agenda move "in the same direction".

The investments that are made, especially in infrastructure to facilitate the connections of people, trade and development, are important parts of the 2030 Agenda, he said, and they relate to several objectives of sustainable development.

"It's important to do it in the best possible way, in a way that fully fits the development strategy of different countries, to allow countries to use them in the positive way ... to allow for good governance, for good practices, for good concessional financing opportunities," he said.

Describing the Belt and Road Initiative as "a new vision" that China has brought to global development, Guterres said discussions like the forum are "extremely useful" at a time when there is doubt about globalization and free trade.

This will be Guterres' first visit to China as secretary-general. He visited China as secretary-general-designate in November and met Xi.

Guterres said his message to China won't be complex.

"It's a simple message to say how much we cherish Chinese engagement in multilateralism ... the cooperation in finding global solutions to global problems ... how much we count on Chinese engagement in those objectives," he said.