Full coverage: Xi Visits Switzerland, Attends WEF Annual Meeting

GENEVA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) - The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), Michael Moller, said he wishes to further cooperate with China to better tackle global challenges.

The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), Michael Moller receives an interview with Xinhua in Geneva, Switzerland on Dec. 19, 2016. (Xinhua/Xu Jinquan)

Moller made the remarks in a recent interview with Xinhua ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Switzerland later this month.

"We are honored that the Chinese president is coming to Geneva. We see this as a very strong and practical reaffirmation of China's support to multilateralism in the United Nations as well as towards the work carried out by our organizations and the United Nations family," Moller said.

He said China is "one of our key member states, an important world power with which we work very closely in our day-to-day activities, disarmament, and in the field of humanitarian development."

He added that Xi's visit "will reinforce a message vis-a-vis an increasingly fragmented world where everyday problems are becoming ever greater."

Among the increasing challenges that the world faces, Moller pointed out persisting inequalities between peoples, the disparity between the rich and the poor, social frustration as well as climate and migration concerns.

"With confidence in short supply nowadays, we are going through existential challenges which are mirrored by increasing disparities between those who have access to goods, money and food etc.... and those who don't," Moller noted.

The UN official urged the international community to show solidarity to find solutions to these pressing issues.

"It's impossible to find solutions unless we cooperate," Moller said, adding that the unilateral actions of even the world's superpowers "are unable to fully address the problems at hand."

Having served as an international civil servant with over 30 years' experience in the UN, Moller was nominated in June 2015 to take the helm of the UNOG.

Xi will pay a state visit to Switzerland from Jan. 15 to Jan. 18, at the invitation of the Federal Council of Switzerland, a foreign ministry spokesperson announced Tuesday in Beijing.

He will also visit the UNOG and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as the International Olympics Committee (IOC) headquarters in Lausanne on Jan. 18, at the invitation of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, and IOC President Thomas Bach.