BILL EMMOTT, a former editor of the Economist magazine, has written that George W. Bush’s “bold initiative” to strengthen U.S. relations with India “may eventually be judged by historians as a move of great strategic importance and imagination.” It “may turn out to be the most significant foreign policy achievement of the Bush administration,” says historian Sugata Bose, an India expert at Harvard. Bilateral ties had improved toward the end of the Clinton administration, thanks largely to the efforts of Strobe Talbott, then serving as deputy secretary of state, and Jaswant Singh, then serving as Indian foreign minister. But “the big jump in relations came under President Bush,” says Columbia economist Arvind Panagariya, author of the 2008 book India: The Emerging Giant.

By far the most controversial element of Bush’s India policy was the U.S.-India civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, which Congress approved this past fall. It was announced in 2005 but then delayed for years by opposition from Democrats in Washington, left-wing parties in New Delhi, and an Indian nuclear establishment that was skeptical of U.S. intentions. “The determination of the White House was very important,” says Panagariya, who believes the Bush administration played a “crucial” role in convincing the Indian government to fight for the deal.