By Sun Ding (Xinhua)

BEIJING, March 13  — Some foreign media’s narrow-minded interpretation of IndianPrime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka as a move to tame China’s influenceover the Island nation is driven by outdated geopolitical and confrontational mindset incontrary to the global trend of peace and development.

As the first official visit by an Indian prime minister to Sri Lanka in nearly three decadeskicked off on Friday, some brooked no delay to babble on New Delhi’s attempt to mitigateBeijing’s growing influence over the neighbor of India in a bid to alienate the two mostpopulous and fast-developing economies.

Those ulteriorly-motivated but evident efforts, however, are destined to no avail as China-Sri Lanka relations will not be affected by Modi’s visit, but only grow stronger.

Upholding a good-neighborly foreign policy featuring amity, sincerity, mutual benefit andinclusiveness in the world’s most diversified and complicated political landscape, Chinawelcomes a thaw in Sri Lanka-India relations troubled by a decades-long civil war in theIsland nation against the Tamil Tiger rebels, as it is in the interests of all three parties.

“Both Sri Lanka and India are China’s important and friendly neighbors in South Asia andimportant cooperative partners in China’s neighborhood” Chinese Foreign Minister WangYi said last month during a joint press conference with his Sri Lankan counterpartMangala Samaraweera.

“China hopes for sound development of both China-Sri Lanka and China-India relations,and is pleased to see continued development of Sri Lanka-India relations,” Wang said.

A trilateral relationship featuring sound interaction, mutual promotion, mutual benefitsand win-win results, as Wang put it, best meets the interests of the three sides andconduces to regional peace, stability and common prosperity.

What’s more, standing the test of time amidst changing international situations andevolution of domestic political situations, the robust development of China-Sri Lankarelations is itself testimony of a solid and deep friendship between the two countries.

President Maithripala Sirisena reiterated several days ago the importance of his country’srelationship with China, calling the world second largest economy a “close partner” amidspeculation over the suspension of a 1.4-billion-U.S.-dollar port project as part of theChina-funded extensive projects aimed at developing post-war Sri Lanka.

Those projects, along with other foreign cooperation projects, were suspended for review,said Sri Lankan Media Minister Gayantha Karunathillaka, blasting claims of thegovernment’s attempt to shut down the development projects to forge closer ties withIndia.

As a matter of fact, the notion that some countries belong to others’ sphere of influencehas already been tossed into the garbage can of history and the zero-sum mindset wouldfind no ground to stand.

The attempts to drive a wedge between Beijing and New Delhi are doomed to fail itsperpetrators as China encourages its neighbors to mend fences with one another andpursue common development and equality-based and win-win cooperation, which haslong been an irreversible trend for global partnership.

As for Sri Lanka — a strong and vocal supporter and beneficiary of China’s 21st-centuryMaritime Silk Road construction initiative, its post-war development requires not onlybacking but also cooperation of all nations.

Having proved itself a trustworthy and reliable partner, China will continue to honor itscommitment to its time-honored and resilient ties with Sri Lanka.

It is also believed that the leaders of China, India and Sri Lanka have the wisdom to makecorrect judgment from strategic perspectives and keep relations between the three nationson a healthy track.