Yang Jiechi (R), a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, meets with United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) president-elect Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met with United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) president-elect Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces in Beijing on Tuesday.

Yang, also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, said China firmly adheres to multilateralism and attaches importance to the status and role of the United Nations.

China will actively support the UNGA and the president, and continue to make contributions to coping with challenges, said Yang, calling on the United Nations and the UNGA to stand against unilateralism and protectionism, and to voice support of building an open world economy and safeguarding the multilateral trade system.

For her part, Espinosa Garces highly commended China's contribution to world peace and development, and said the United Nations will firmly adhere to multilateralism.