The 2021 Atlantic Charter

The story: The second world war saw the creation of one of the world's most important charters, across the Atlantic ocean. In 2021, the US President a

The 2021 Atlantic Charter

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• The story: The second world war saw the creation of one of the world's most important charters, across the Atlantic ocean. In 2021, the US President and UK PM renewed the deal, and the 80-year old Atlantic Charter got a new lease of life. President Trump had tried to undo decades of trans-Atlantic relationship-building, by questioning the very basis of NATO itself.
• Points to note: The Atlantic Charter was a joint declaration released by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on 14th August, 1941 (during World War II) following a meeting of the two heads of government in Newfoundland. It was later incorporated by reference in the Declaration of the United Nations in 1942. The World War II was a conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939–45. The Major belligerents were (i) Axis powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan, and (ii) Allies: France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China.
• What it provided: The Atlantic Charter provided a broad statement of US and British war aims such as:

1. They desired no territorial changes without the free assent of the peoples concerned
2. They respected every people’s right to choose its own form of government and wanted sovereign rights and self-government restored to those forcibly deprived of them
3. They would try to promote equal access for all states to trade and to raw materials
4. They hoped to promote worldwide collaboration so as to improve labour standards, economic progress, and social security
5. The destruction of “Nazi tyranny,” (Germany) they would look for a peace under which all nations could live safely within their boundaries, without fear or want
6. Under such a peace the seas should be free. Pending a general security through renunciation of force, potential aggressors must be disarmed.

• New Atlantic Charter (2021): The new charter, a 604-word declaration, is an effort to stake out a grand vision for global relationships in the 21st century, just as the original was a declaration of a Western commitment to democracy and territorial integrity just months before the US entered World War II. It is a statement of principles, a promise that the UK and the US would meet the challenges of their age together. It calls for both countries to adhere to the rules-based international order.

1. The new charter focuses on climate change and the need to protect biodiversity. With references to emerging technologies, cyberspace and sustainable global development.
2. It calls on Western allies to oppose interference through disinformation or other malign influences, including in elections.
3. It ranks the threats to democratic nations in a technological era.
4. It vows that as long as there are nuclear weapons, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) will remain a nuclear alliance.

• India: The old Atlantic Charter alienated Indian nationalism from the West but the new Charter and the rebooting of western institutions should be a productive phase of India’s cooperation with the US and its allies. In 1941, the UK insisted that the principle of self-determination highlighted in the charter did not apply to India. But the presence of India and South Africa along with Australia and South Korea (as guests) at the G-7 summit 2021 is a recognition of the urgent imperative to widen the basis of the West in dealing with global challenges. The current Anglo-American effort to institutionalise western consultations with India is a long overdue correction. 

 

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