New Delhi: Yashwant Sinha on July 1 night said he was ready to face the "new challenges" that emerge in the External Affairs Ministry and work hard to carry forward India's foreign policy.

"In the last four years, I have presented five budgets. I am happy to be given something new today," Sinha, who swapped places with Jaswant Singh, told reporters shortly after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee carried out a major Cabinet reshuffle.

"There are new challenges," Sinha said when asked about his new assignment, adding he would work equally hard in his post as he had done in the Finance Ministry.

On criticism within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies that his policies had led to erosion in votes for the combine, Sinha admitted that such a view had been expressed in certain quarters.

"If somewhere votes have been lost, it should be remembered that whatever has been done has been in national interest. Normally people think of tomorrow and immediate gains. But one has to think of day-after and beyond with a long-term perspective," he said.

Government, he said, had to take all necessary steps in this direction. "Some of these decisions may not be popular. But these have to be taken in the interest of the nation."

Sinha said may be it was his "shortcomings", that he could not make people understand the need for certain decisions.

PTI