The joint statement, later dubbed the Atlantic Charter, outlined the aims of the United States and the United Kingdom for the postwar world as follows: no territorial aggrandizement, no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people (self-determination), restoration of self-government to those deprived of it, reduction of trade restrictions, global co-operation to secure better economic and social conditions for all, freedom from fear and want, freedom of the seas, abandonment of the use of force, and disarmament of aggressor nations.

In 2021, a document titled the New Atlantic Charter was signed by United States President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at their first meeting in Cornwall.

It was assumed at the time in Britain that the British and the Americans would have an equal role to play in any postwar international organization that would be based on the charter's principles.

Churchill then delivered a letter from King George VI to Roosevelt and made an official statement, but a movie sound crew that was present failed to record it despite two attempts.

Both wanted to present their unity regarding their mutual principles and hopes for a peaceful postwar world and the policies that they agreed to follow once Germany had been defeated.

Churchill's account of the Yalta Conference quoted Roosevelt as saying of the unwritten British constitution that "it was like the Atlantic Charter – the document did not exist, yet all the world knew about it.

[18] Then, at the meeting of the Inter-Allied Council in London on 24 September 1941, the governments-in-exile of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Yugoslavia, together with the Soviet Union and representatives of the Free French Forces, unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth by Britain and United States.

In Tokyo, the Atlantic Charter rallied support for the militarists in the Japanese government, which pushed for a more aggressive approach against the United States and Britain.

[citation needed] The British dropped millions of flysheets over Germany to allay its fears of a punitive peace that would destroy the German state.

The problems came not from Germany and Japan but the allies that had empires and so resisted self-determination, especially the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union[citation needed], and the Netherlands.

However, Roosevelt's speechwriter, Robert E. Sherwood, noted that "it was not long before the people of India, Burma, Malaya, and Indonesia were beginning to ask if the Atlantic Charter extended also to the Pacific and to Asia in general."

[28] Mahatma Gandhi in 1942 wrote to Roosevelt: "I venture to think that the Allied declaration that the Allies are fighting to make the world safe for the freedom of the individual and for democracy sounds hollow so long as India and for that matter Africa are exploited by Great Britain...."[29] Self-determination was Roosevelt's guiding principle, but he was reluctant to place pressure on the British in regard to India and other colonial possessions, as they were fighting for their lives in a war in which the United States was not officially participating.

[30] Gandhi refused to help the British or the American war effort against Germany and Japan in any way, and Roosevelt chose to back Churchill.

[33][34][35] He also did not support some of Churchill's proposals that he believed were intended to secure Britain's empire post-war, such as one for an expanded Mediterranean strategy that would increase British presence in the Middle East.

[38] Churchill was unhappy with the inclusion of references to the right to self-determination and stated that he considered the charter an "interim and partial statement of war aims designed to reassure all countries of our righteous purpose and not the complete structure which we should build after the victory."

[43] On 10 June 2021, a revised version of the original Atlantic Charter was issued between U.S. President Joe Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Cornwall, England.

[44] A statement issued by the White House described the new "revitalized" Atlantic Charter as aimed to meet the "new challenges of the 21st century," while also "building on the commitments and aspirations set out eighty years ago.