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 …
