ANKARA

India on Friday denied pausing defense procurement talks with the US amid tensions over tariffs imposed on its exports by President Donald Trump.

The denial came after reports emerged that New Delhi has put on hold its plans to procure new US weapons and aircraft after Trump signed an executive order imposing an additional 25% tariff on India in response to its continued purchases of Russian crude.

With the new order, US tariffs on Indian imports climbed to 50%, half of which came into effect on Thursday.

Defense Ministry officials said the “news reports” on India pausing the talks related to defense purchases with the US are “false and fabricated.”

“It is clarified that the various cases of procurement are being progressed as per the extant procedures,” the officials added.

It was reported that India had been planning to send Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to Washington in the coming weeks for an announcement on some of the purchases, but that trip has been cancelled. There was, however, no official confirmation about the trip being cancelled.

The discussions were said to be on India's purchases of Stryker combat vehicles made by General Dynamics Land Systems and Javelin anti-tank missiles developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

While Trump accuses India of profiting from the resale of Russian oil, New Delhi says the tariffs are “extremely unfortunate” and his actions “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.”

Trade between the US and India exceeded $190 billion last year, yet the US runs a trade deficit of around $45 billion with India.