Mending frayed diplomatic relations between India and Canada will be a long process after each side adopted maximalist positions, despite New Delhi¡¯s surprise move to ease some visa curbs on Canadians, officials and experts say.

India recently decided to partially restore visa services, weeks after suspending them in anger at Ottawa¡¯s claim that Indian agents may have been involved in the murder of a Canadian Sikh separatist leader from Punjab state.

Mutual recriminations since that accusation, which India strongly denies, have strained ties between the two countries ¡ª close for almost a century and with extensive links through the Sikh diaspora ¡ª to their worst in memory.