A few days before the visit of Angela Merkel in Nicosia, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German parliament called on the Cypriot government to allow Turkish Cypriots to trade directly, citing the example of China-Taiwan. Cyprus, as an EU member, “can maintain its position on the ‘status’ of the island, but also agree to allow the northern part of Cyprus to conduct trade, and even direct trade,” said the newspaper Tagesspiegel.
The Christian Democrat politician refers to the example of China, noting that Beijing insists on “one China policy”, but allows the direct trade in Taiwan.