Australia

Australia monitors Chinese vessel

July 14, 2021 5:22 pm

The Chinese auxiliary general intelligence vessel Tianwangxing has been spotted heading towards Australia. [Source: ABC]

The Australian military is closely tracking a high-tech Chinese surveillance ship making its way towards Queensland ahead of large-scale military exercises which begin this week.

Defence sources have told the ABC the auxiliary general intelligence vessel is scheduled to arrive on Friday.

The vessel is then expected to monitor the Talisman Sabre 2021 war games involving Australia and the United States, which will be officially opened today.

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Defence Minister Peter Dutton confirmed Australian Defence Force (ADF) assets had been closely monitoring the Chinese military vessel for “several days”.

In 2019, the same Type 815 vessel was also tracked by the ADF as it travelled to Australia to monitor the biennial Talisman Sabre war games.

The Chinese vessel is fitted with advanced communications systems.