The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday that South Korea's military drills on and around the Dokdo islets were not helpful in the country's current row with Japan.

The department gave the response to an inquiry by KBS regarding South Korea's recent military drills to defend its East Sea territories, including Dokdo. Japan claims the islets as its own.

It is effectively the first time that the U.S. State Department has expressed a stance on the biannual drills. 

Seoul-based Yonhap News also reported that the department said “the timing, messaging and increased scale of military drills at Liancourt Rocks are not productive toward resolving ongoing issues” given the recent disagreements between the two nations. 

Liancourt Rocks is the name given to the islets by French whalers in the mid-1800s and is a designation commonly used by the U.S. and others outside the region.

According to Yonhap, the department encouraged Seoul and Tokyo to commit to sincere discussions on resolving bilateral disputes, adding that Washington does not take a position on the territorial claims of the islets and that the issue is up to the two nations to resolve peacefully. 

Reuters reported earlier that a senior State Department official said that the U.S. finds the drills not “particularly helpful,” and that South Korea's recent military drills only worsen the situation without contributing to resolving issues.

The comment comes a day after South Korea concluded its largest-ever Dokdo defense drill on and around the islets.