The national legislatures of South Africa and the United Arab Emirates are ready to host the parliaments of Ukraine and Russia to find possible avenues of convergence amid the conflict between the two nations.

This emerged in a parliamentary report detailing the work South African MPs had undertaken at the 146th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in March.

A delegation from South Africa participated in the assembly under the theme of promoting peaceful coexistence and inclusive societies and fighting intolerance.

The IPU Task Force for the peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine met with high-level delegations of MPs from Russia and Ukraine separately to keep parliamentary diplomatic channels open for future peacebuilding.

During the meeting, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa announced their readiness to host the parliaments of each country for further discussion on the ongoing war.

National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula delivered the report and noted that the parliaments of Ukraine and Russia welcomed the work of the task force.

The next step involves engaging the two parliaments on the following:

• sending a letter detailing avenues to mitigate the humanitarian consequences of the war in four areas: nuclear safety, food security, protection of environmentally vulnerable sites, and access to and exchange of prisoners of war;
• engaging with other parties to help bring about positive change in the ongoing escalation of the conflict; and
• endeavouring to find possible avenues of convergence and inviting both delegations to convene in a suitable venue for discussion.

News24 previously reported that, to spare itself from having to comply with the ICC warrant of arrest for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the ANC had instructed its ministers to consider moving the summit.

As per talks in the party, suggestions were that India, despite having hosted the summit in 2019, and China, despite having hosted it in 2011, 2017 and last year, could be the hosts this year, given that they are not member states of the ICC, and have never signed its core treaty, the Rome Statute.

News24 understands that what further exacerbated the situation was a legal opinion the BRICS-appointed technical team sought, which was presented to the inter-ministerial committee, headed by Deputy President Paul Mashatile.

The legal opinion was said to have discouraged the government from having Putin attend the summit.

Last month, a political firestorm erupted when US Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety accused the country of supplying weapons to Russia.

President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed former Supreme Court Judge Phineas Mojapelo to chair a three-member independent panel to probe the veracity of allegations related to the docking of the Russian vessel, the Lady R, in Simon's Town in December last year.

Recently, Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, received a peace mission, led by six African heads of state, in their respective capitals. Ramaphosa pleaded with both heads of state to end the war.