According to people familiar with the matter, Apple plans to shift the assembly of all iPhones sold in the US to India starting next year, as President Donald Trump’s trade war forces the tech giant away from China.

This move, based on Apple’s strategy to diversify its supply chain, is progressing further and faster than investors appreciate, according to the Financial Times. The goal is for all more than 60 million iPhones sold annually in the US to be sourced from India by the end of 2026.

This target means doubling iPhone production in India, following nearly two decades where Apple spent heavily in China to build a worldwide production line that enabled it to become a $3 trillion tech giant.

China, where Apple produces most of its iPhones through third parties like Foxconn, has been subject to the US president’s most aggressive tariffs, although Washington has since signaled its willingness to negotiate with Beijing.

Following Trump’s tariff announcements that wiped $700 billion off Apple’s market value, the company rushed to export existing iPhones produced in India to the US to avoid higher tariffs imposed on China.

Apple has been steadily developing capacity in India with contract manufacturers Tata Electronics and Foxconn in recent years, but still assembles most of its smartphones in China.

iPhone assembly, the final step in the production process, brings together hundreds of components that Apple still largely relies on Chinese suppliers for.

Trump initially announced that reciprocal tariffs of over 100% would be applied to imports from China, but later proposed a temporary reprieve for smartphones. These devices are still subject to a separate rate of 20% applicable to all imports from China.

A so-called reciprocal tariff of 26% was applied to India, but this application was paused as New Delhi pushed for a bilateral trade agreement with the US. Visiting India this week, US Vice President JD Vance said the two countries were making “very good progress”.

According to International Data Corporation, the US accounts for approximately 28% of Apple’s 232.1 million global iPhone shipments in 2024.

Apple will need to further increase its capacity in India to meet all orders from the US.

Last year, as the iPhone maker sought to increase its production in India, Foxconn and Tata began importing pre-assembled component kits from China.

“We believe this will be a significant move for Apple to continue its growth and momentum,” said Daniel Newman, CEO of research firm Futurum Group. He added, “We are seeing in real time how a company with these resources moves at relatively light speed to address tariff risk.”

Apple is set to announce its quarterly earnings next week as investors try to understand the impact of Trump’s tariff plans. The company does not provide specific guidance on earnings and avoids discussing tariffs.

Chief Executive Tim Cook has been in regular contact with Trump and his administration since attending the president’s inauguration in January.

Afghanistan’s trade with India through Pakistan has been halted due to closure of the Attari-Wagah border. The Hindustan Times reported that the border, which is the only land route allowed for trade, is now closed and the local economy will be affected.

According to the report, this route is vital for importing goods from Afghanistan to India, and if it is stopped, trade with Afghanistan will also be severely affected.

The closure came after terrorist attacks and political developments in Kashmir.

Some merchants have announced that they will seek alternative routes for importing goods, but the economic impacts of this decision will remain serious, especially for small merchants and industries.

The decision came after gunmen shot and killed at least 26 tourists on Tuesday at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Police blamed militants fighting against Indian rule for the attack in Baisaran meadown. The attack took place 5 kilometers away from the disputed region’s resort town of Paghalgam.

Pakistan alarmed the world of a possible war between India and Pakistan

Meanwhile, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif warned that the world should be concerned about the possibility of war between the two nuclear-armed countries, Pakistan and India.

In an interview with Sky News, Asif on Friday said that the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan could escalate into a full-scale war.

Asif added that Pakistan would respond appropriately in case of any full-scale attack by India. He expressed hope that despite the escalation of tensions, the issue could be resolved through talks.

Asif statement’s interview came when India accused Pakistan of involvement in the attack, but Islamabad has denied the allegations, calling it a “false flag” operation.

India, in immediate action, decided to suspend the Indus Water Treaty and made further threats against Pakistan following the attack. These actions by India have raised further concerns about increasing tensions in the region.

Pakistan, in response to India’s actions, has also warned that any attempt to change the flow of shared waters under the Indus Water Treaty will be considered an “act of war.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reacted strongly after police identified two attackers behind a deadly militant attack on tourists in Kashmir as Pakistani nationals, vowing to track, trace, and punish the terrorists and their supporters.

Speaking in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, Modi paid tribute to the 26 people shot dead in a meadow in the Pahalgam area of Indian Kashmir.

“We will pursue them to the ends of the earth,” Modi said, without naming the attackers’ nationality or Pakistan.

But tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals appeared set to escalate after India late on Wednesday ruptured ties with Pakistan, suspending a sixteen-year-old water treaty and closing the only land border crossing between the neighbors.

Pakistan’s Energy Minister Awais Lekhari called the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty “an act of water war; a cowardly, illegal move.”

Pakistan also closed its airspace to Indian airlines and warned against violation of the water treaty.

Indian Kashmir police on Thursday issued posters naming three militants suspected of “involvement” in the attack and announcing rewards for information leading to their capture.

The posters stated that two of the three suspected militants were Pakistani nationals.

India and Pakistan control separate parts of Kashmir and both claim the territory in full.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Wednesday that a cabinet committee on security had been briefed on the cross-border links of the attack, the worst against civilians in the country in nearly two decades.

Misri, the top diplomat in India’s foreign ministry, did not offer any evidence of the links or provide further details.

Misri said New Delhi would withdraw its defense advisers in Pakistan and reduce the number of personnel at its mission in Islamabad from 55 to 30.

Local media reports said India summoned Pakistan’s top diplomat in New Delhi to inform him that all defense advisers at the Pakistani mission had been declared persona non grata and given a week to leave.

Modi also called an all-party meeting to brief them on the government’s response to the attack.

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Pakistani Embassy in New Delhi’s diplomatic enclave on Thursday, chanting slogans and pushing against police barricades.

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in Islamabad that Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif would hold a National Security Committee meeting to discuss Pakistan’s response.

The Indus Treaty, brokered by the World Bank and signed in 1960, regulated the sharing of waters from the Indus River and its tributaries between India and Pakistan. The treaty has since survived two wars between the neighbors and serious tensions in relations at other times.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were weak even before the latest measures were announced, after Pakistan expelled India’s envoy and India did not send its high commissioner to New Delhi after it revoked Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status in 2019.

Tuesday’s attack is seen as a setback for what Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have projected as a major success in removing the special status held by the state of Jammu and Kashmir and bringing peace and development to the long-troubled Muslim-majority region.

While India frequently accuses Pakistan of involvement in the insurgency in Kashmir, Islamabad maintains it only provides diplomatic and moral support.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir since the insurgency began in 1989, but the insurgency has waned in recent years and tourism has increased in the naturally beautiful region.