The District Court denied the motion to compel arbitration of the dispute before it. It found that while the four jurisdictional requirements for compelling arbitration under the New York Convention were met – the joint venture contract (JVC) on which the defendants relied contained an arbitration agreement in writing, providing for arbitration in PR China (a Convention signatory) and arising out of a commercial legal relationship, and at least one of the parties was not a US citizen – the plaintiff was not bound by the arbitration agreement. The Court pointed out that Art. II of the Convention provides that the contracting States “shall recognize an agreement in writing under which the parties undertake to submit to arbitration”. This meant here that, for the Convention to apply, the plaintiff had to be a party to the JVC, such that it agreed to be bound by the arbitration provision contained therein. However, the language of the JVC left little doubt, in the Court’ opinion, that the plaintiff was not a party to the JVC in any sense that would subject it to the JVC’s arbitration provision.