The U.S. and South Korea will scale back next year’s Foal Eagle military exercise to help keep negotiations with North Korean on track, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said on Wednesday.

The drills typically take place in the spring and involve thousands of U.S. and South Korean ground troops.

“Foal Eagle is being reorganized a bit to keep it at a level that will not be harmful to diplomacy,” Mattis said during a press conference at the Pentagon, though did not provide further details on the downscaling.

According to Stars and Stripes, recent iterations of the Foal Eagle drills