Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida pledged Thursday to protect Japanese territory and called on China to refrain from escalating tensions over the Senkaku Islands.

In his first foreign policy address to the Diet, Kishida said there is no territorial issue to be resolved concerning the Japanese-administered islets in the East China Sea, adding that China's maritime assertiveness and opaque military buildup are major regional concerns.

Asia's two biggest economies have been involved in a tense row over the uninhabited islets, called Diaoyu in China, since the Japanese government brought them under direct state control last September.