US President Donald Trump with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Credit: Reuters Photo
New Delhi: The Defence Ministry on Friday denied reports of cancellation of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s planned visit to the USA and New Delhi hitting a pause button on the ongoing bilateral discussions on several critical defence deals.
“The news reports on India pausing the talks related to defence 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,” Defence Ministry sources said.
A senior official said there was no question of cancelling the minister’s visit because dates for any such visit had not been announced in the first place.
The clarifications came in the wake of multiple reports claiming that New Delhi put on hold bilateral discussions to procure new weapons and aircraft from the USA that emerged as one of the major arms suppliers to India.
The reports also claim the cancellation of the visit of Rajnath, who was to make some major procurement announcement.
The discussions that reportedly have been put on hold are purchase of Stryker combat vehicles, Javelin anti-tank missiles and additional P8I aircraft for the Indian Navy.
This comes amid the ongoing Indo-US tension after the Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Indian goods. A 25% duty came into effect on August 7, with the remaining 25% set to be implemented from August 27.