India is pausing plans to procure new weapons and aircraft from the United States in apparent retaliation for President Donald Trump’s tariff hike on its exports this week, according to news agency Reuters, citing three Indian officials.

Two of the officials familiar with the matter told Reuters that India had been planning to send Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to Washington in the coming weeks for an announcement on some of the purchases, but that the trip had been cancelled, the news agency reported.

Following publication of the story on Friday, India’s government issued a statement it attributed to a Ministry of Defence source describing news reports of a pause in the talks as “false and fabricated”. The statement also said procurement was progressing as per “extant procedures”.

Relations between the two countries nosedived this week after Trump imposed an additional 25 percent tariff on Indian goods on Wednesday as punishment for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, which he said meant the country was funding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

That raised the total duty on Indian exports to 50 percent – among the highest of any US trading partner.

Trump has a history of reversing course on tariffs and India has said it remains actively engaged in discussions with Washington. One of the officials who spoke to Reuters said the defence purchases could go ahead once India had clarity on tariffs and the direction of bilateral ties, but “just not as soon as they were expected to”.

Written instructions had not been given to pause the purchases, another official said, indicating that India had the option to quickly reverse course, though there was “no forward movement at least for now”.

New Delhi, which has forged a close partnership with the US in recent years, has said it is being unfairly targeted and that Washington and its European allies continue to trade with Moscow when it is in their interest.

Reuters reported that discussions on India’s purchases of Stryker combat vehicles, made by General Dynamics Land Systems, and Javelin antitank missiles, developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, had been paused due to the tariffs.

Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in February announced plans to pursue procurement and joint production of those items.

Singh had also been planning to announce the purchase of six Boeing P8I reconnaissance aircraft and support systems for the Indian Navy during his now-cancelled trip, two of the people said.

Talks over procuring the aircraft in a proposed $3.6bn deal were at an advanced stage, according to the officials.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics referred queries to the Indian and US governments. Raytheon did not return a Reuters request for comment.

India’s deepening security relationship with the US, which is fuelled by their shared strategic rivalry with China, was heralded by many US analysts as one of the key areas of foreign-policy progress in the first Trump administration.

New Delhi is the world’s second-largest arms importer, and Russia has traditionally been its top supplier. India has in recent years, however, shifted to importing from Western powers like France, Israel and the US, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think 

That raised the total duty on Indian exports to 50 percent – among the highest of any US trading partner.

Trump has a history of reversing course on tariffs and India has said it remains actively engaged in discussions with Washington. One of the officials who spoke to Reuters said the defence purchases could go ahead once India had clarity on tariffs and the direction of bilateral ties, but “just not as soon as they were expected to”.

Written instructions had not been given to pause the purchases, another official said, indicating that India had the option to quickly reverse course, though there was “no forward movement at least for now”.

New Delhi, which has forged a close partnership with the US in recent years, has said it is being unfairly targeted and that Washington and its European allies continue to trade with Moscow when it is in their interest.

Reuters reported that discussions on India’s purchases of Stryker combat vehicles, made by General Dynamics Land Systems, and Javelin antitank missiles, developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, had been paused due to the tariffs.

Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in February announced plans to pursue procurement and joint production of those items.

Singh had also been planning to announce the purchase of six Boeing P8I reconnaissance aircraft and support systems for the Indian Navy during his now-cancelled trip, two of the people said.

Talks over procuring the aircraft in a proposed $3.6bn deal were at an advanced stage, according to the officials.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics referred queries to the Indian and US governments. Raytheon did not return a Reuters request for comment.

Strained relations

India’s deepening security relationship with the US, which is fuelled by their shared strategic rivalry with China, was heralded by many US analysts as one of the key areas of foreign-policy progress in the first Trump administration.

New Delhi is the world’s second-largest arms importer, and Russia has traditionally been its top supplier. India has in recent years, however, shifted to importing from Western powers like France, Israel and the US, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think tank.

The shift in suppliers was driven partly by constraints on Russia’s ability to export arms, which it is utilising heavily in its invasion of Ukraine. Some Russian weapons have also performed poorly in the battlefield, according to Western analysts.

The broader US-India defence partnership, which includes intelligence sharing and joint military exercises, continues without hiccups, one of the Indian officials said.

India also remains open to scaling back on oil imports from Russia and is open to making deals elsewhere, including the US, if it can get similar prices, according to two other Indian sources speaking to Reuters.

Trump’s threats and rising anti-US sentiment in India have “made it politically difficult for Modi to make the shift from Russia to the US”, one of the people said. Nonetheless, discounts on the landing cost of Russian oil have shrunk to the lowest since 2022.

While the rupture in US-India ties was abrupt, there have been strains in the relationship. New Delhi has repeatedly rebutted Trump’s claim that the US brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after four days of fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours in May. Trump also hosted Pakistan’s army chief at the White House in the weeks following the conflict.

In recent months, Moscow has been actively pitching India on buying new defence technologies like its S-500 surface-to-air missile system, according to one of the Indian officials, as well as a Russian source familiar with the talks.

India currently does not see a need for new arms purchases from Moscow, two Indian officials said.

But India is unlikely to wean itself off Russian weapons entirely as the decades-long partnership between the two powers means Indian military systems will continue to require Moscow’s support, one of the officials said.

The Russian embassy in New Delhi did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.