Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed Wednesday in New York to further advance their cooperation in security and defense equipment, reiterating their commitment to maintaining the rule of law at sea.

Abe and Macron agreed to speed up negotiations toward an acquisition and cross-servicing agreement, a type of bilateral defense logistics-sharing deal, according to a senior Japanese official.

In their meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, the two leaders hailed recent bilateral security cooperation including recent quadrilateral drills between Japanese, French, U.S. and British ships as part of France's "Jeanne D'Arc" training exercise.