India and Italy on Tuesday condemned terrorism in all its forms and called for strong measures against the perpetrators following a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Guiseppe Conte.

"The two leaders strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," a joint statement issued following the meeting said.

"The leaders asserted that strong measures need to be taken against terrorists, terror organisations and all those who encourage, support and finance terrorism," it stated.

"They condemned all kinds of State support to terrorists including cross-border terrorism and providing safe havens to terrorists and their network," it added, in what can be seen as a veiled reference to Pakistan.

Italy suffered its largest terror attack casualties in South Asia when nine of its citizens were killed at the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka in July 2016.

According to the joint statement, Modi and Conte agreed to strengthen counter-terrorism cooperation through multilateral fora and called upon all UN member countries to effectively implement the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy, UN Security Council Resolution 1267 and other relevant UNSC resolutions relating to prevention and suppression of terrorism and terrorist financing.

"The leaders also agreed to work together for implementation of the Hamburg G20 Leaders' Statement on Countering Terrorism, and to further cooperate in this regard at the upcoming Buenos Aires G20 Summit," it stated.

Following the meeting, India proposed to host the second India-Italy Joint Working Group on Combating Terrorism in New Delhi in the first half of 2019.

--IANS

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