Bangladesh has fears that through the longer route its goods would be forced to pass on to Southeast Asia, he said at the inaugural session of Third Bangladesh-India Dialogue for Young Leaders.

A cursory examination of the highway map shows that on economic grounds alone, Bangladesh would benefit from a direct route linking it with Southeast Asian economies through Myanmar, he said in his keynote paper on 'Bangladesh and India: The Geopolitics of Cooperation'.

Adviser to the foreign ministry Reaz Rahman was present as the chief guest while Indian High Commissioner Veena Sikri and British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury were present as special guests at the inaugural session of the three-day event organised by Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) at its auditorium. BEI President Farooq Sobhan chaired the session.

Peoples' representatives, academicians and media professionals from Bangladesh and India are taking part in the dialogue on various issues such as cross-border issues and security, interlinking of rivers, sharing of water, trade, economic and regional cooperation and foreign policy.

"It is clear that India -- and potentially Bangladesh -- could also benefit greatly from a direct link between West Bengal and northeastern Indian states," Dr Robert said, adding that such advantages, however, may depend on trust.

The current disagreements over the routing of the proposed highway illustrate the way in which immediate political concerns can override wider geostrategic interests, he said.

Dr Robert, a senior research fellow of King's College, London, said one of the intractable features of Bangladesh-India disputes over water is the difficulty of reaching agreement over any of the objective variables of the water system.

"The most crucial strategic objectives of water management would be an attempt to agree a common programme of data collection and analysis," he suggested.

Speaking at the session, Reaz Rahman underscored the need for strengthening the bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh side by side expediting the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) activities for regional development.

Describing environmental degradation, drug trafficking, new diseases and organised crimes as negative elements in the region, he said both the countries should remove the mistrust and work towards cooperation for regional development.

British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury said terrorism is an alarming problem for the world today and it is not possible to combat the menace without regional and international cooperation.

Indian High Commissioner Veena Sikri hoped that more open and friendly relationship would be built through dialogues among the young leaders and professionals and people-to-people contact between the two countries.

Prof Obaidul Haque, Asif Nazrul, Prof Mahendra P Lama, Dr Sanjay Bhardwaj, Assistant Editor of The Daily Star Zafar Sobhan and Senior Sub-Editor of The Telegraph Sreyashi Dastidar will give presentations at the dialogue today and tomorrow.