India will have a stable government for 15 years or even longer and such political stability helps an administration to make bold decisions, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said in Japan on Friday.

Speaking at the Nikkei Forum on the theme of the India-Japan special strategic partnership, he said a reformist leadership backed by a strong political mandate results in bold decision-making.

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Jaishankar was responding to a question about India’s political stability and whether the upcoming general election will affect foreign policy. Authorities are expected to soon announce the holding of the election in May.

“Hundred percent, we will have 15 years of stable government. It could even be that of 20 years or longer,” he said. While developments in every country are different, India’s experience has been that the lack of political stability or the absence of a majority in Parliament “makes a very big difference”, he added.

A reformist leadership with a vision and commitment backed by a strong political mandate is able to make bold decisions, and a majority in Parliament is equally important, Jaishankar said.

In India’s case, the country has had these conditions for the past 10 years “and we hope to continue that”, he said. “In many cases, we have seen decisions which were debated for years, but suddenly you found the ability to do it,” he added.

Political stability also means policy stability, as anyone making a big bet on India will want to know what the country will be like for the next 10 years. “If the investor does not know what it will be like a year from now…then the investor, be it a domestic or a foreign [investor], will be hesitant. When you do a country’s risk evaluation, political stability is a very important part of that,” he said.

Jaishankar also defended India’s stance on Russia amid the Ukraine conflict, saying countries “cherry-picked” principles when it suits them. He noted that Indian territory has been occupied by another country, but the world has maintained a silence on the issue.

“My position would be that the world is a complicated place, and there are many important principles and beliefs in the world. What happens sometimes in world politics is countries pick one issue, one situation, one principle, and they highlight it because it suits them,” he said.

“But if one looks at the principle itself, we in India know better than almost any other country because immediately after our independence, we experienced aggression, an effort to change our boundaries. And even today, parts of India are occupied by another country. But we did not see the world response saying, oh, there’s a great principle involved, and therefore, let us all go with India,” he added.

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Jaishankar said India doesn’t think the Ukraine conflict can be decided on the battlefield. “We want to see the end to this conflict, but we believe that every conflict finally ends [when] people come to the table. That’s how conflicts end,” he said.

Jaishankar is on a three-day visit to Japan during March 6-8 to take forward the bilateral relationship and to frame plans for future cooperation. On Thursday, he co-chaired the India-Japan foreign ministers’ strategic dialogue with his Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa.