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New Zealand works on nuclear disarmament issues with the New Agenda Coalition (NAC) - New Zealand, Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, South Africa, and Sweden. The New Agenda Coalition was established in 1998, concerned by the lack of progress in nuclear disarmament efforts in the aftermath of the Nuclear Non proliferation Treaty’s indefinite extension and at the implications of India’s and Pakistan’s nuclear tests, the group sought to inject fresh thinking and a new momentum into multilateral consideration of the issues. The “new agenda” draws from a range of sources including the 1996 Canberra Commission for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons established in 1995 by the Australian Government to propose practical steps towards a nuclear weapon free world, and the 1996 unanimous International Court of Justice opinion that there exists an obligation on the nuclear weapon states to "pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control".
In the past, the New Agenda Coalition has played a bridging role, covering the middle ground between the nuclear weapon states and the non-aligned movement. Recent instability in the international security environment has produced new challenges for the NAC as international attention has increasingly shifted to the non-proliferation pillar of the NPT, given new threats including rogue states and non-state actors. While the NAC acknowledges the importance of such work, the group maintains that non-proliferation efforts must not be at the expense of attention to longer-term nuclear disarmament, through the multilateral, treaty-based system. It is the only group focussing, at governmental level, on the nuclear disarmament pillar of the NPT, and pushing the nuclear weapon states to live up to the commitments that they have made.
