The Bush administration’s foreign policy appears, on the whole, to be deeply troubled in the President’s waning days. Iraq aside, there aren’t a lot of successes to boast of. So it is all the more cheering to see a notable victory in India where the parliament has just returned a vote of confidence in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government by a wider-than-expected margin.

That’s good news for the U.S., because the vote was widely seen as a referendum on the U.S.-India nuclear agreement, which is the cornerstone of the Bush administration’s policy to forge a strategic alliance with India. That country can serve as an important bulwark against China as well as a friend in the fight against radical Islam. There are still obstacles to completing the deal, but this was the major hurdle, and now it’s been cleared. Assuming the accord now goes through, this is likely to be one Bush initiative that any successor, Democratic or Republican, will carry through. It may even someday be remembered as one of the administration’s most important achievements.