India, May 15 -- Escalating the ongoing tariff war, US president Donald Trump has reportedly asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to stop building manufacturing plants in India.

"We are not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves", Trump told Cook at a business event in Qatar, taking aim at the iPhone maker, which has been increasingly turning to India in a shift from China, Bloomberg reported.

Trump called India "one the highest-tariff nations in the world", adding that that makes it "very hard" to sell US-made products in the country.

He further said that Apple should focus on manufacturing its devices in the US instead, without disclosing its impact on the company's India plans.

The US president's comments come a...