The Australian Defence Force has said it is keeping a close eye on a Chinese spy warship heading to Australian waters.
The Defence Force says it is keeping a close eye on a Chinese warship heading into Australian waters allegedly to spy on scheduled war games later this month.
The Auxiliary General Intelligence vessel is expected to closely monitor the United States and Australian exercises during the Talisman Sabre war games off the Queensland coast.
Decked out with advanced communications systems designed to listen in on enemy militaries, the ship was reportedly north of Papua New Guinea on Saturday night.
"There is [an AGI ship] north of Australia at the moment," the ABC reported the Chief of Defence Joint Operations, Lieutenant General Greg Bilton said at the Talisman Sabre launch in Brisbane.
"It is international waters, they have the right to sail there.
"I'm not going to go into operational details, but we'll just take appropriate actions in regards to that vessel.
"It's a vessel that collects information, so it's not a great threat but we'll take appropriate action."
In a statement provided to news.com.au, the Defence Department said it was "aware that there will likely be interest from other countries in exercise Talisman Sabre".
Last month, the secret arrival of three Chinese warships into Sydney Harbour surprised many.
The visit was kept so quiet even the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian wasn't aware the naval ships would be docking with more than 700 foreign sailors on board.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison's offhand assurance it was not a surprise and no more than a "reciprocal visit" didn't do much to quell the questions about why the public was left in the dark.
"It may have been a surprise to others, but it certainly wasn't a surprise to the Government," Mr Morrison told reports during his trip to the Solomon Islands capital Honiara.
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