Liu Qibao (left), head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and Gary Quinlan, acting secretary in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, share a moment before the signing ceremony. [Photo by Zou Hong/chinadaily.com.cn]

Under the agreement, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Financial Review newspapers under the Fairfax Media will issue an eight-page English-language edition of "China Watch" once a month starting this month.

"In the process of international communication, China Daily has been forging alliance with important international players in the media world. Our cooperation with the Fairfax Media today is an example of such a momentum," said Kang.

"Fairfax Media owns three important daily newspapers in Australia and nine others in New Zealand, which means the influence of China Daily will be spread to cover the two most important countries in Oceania," he said, adding that China Daily is forging friendship with its Australian partner so that China's soft power could drive the wheel of its friendship with Australia and New Zealand.

"Only by so doing can our road of cooperation forward be a long and rewarding one," Kang said.

Williams said China Watch will enrich the content of the media group's daily newspapers, and Australian readers will be interested in reading in-depth coverage on China and Sino-Australian ties.

Tim Dwyer, an associate professor and chair of Department of Media and Communications with the University of Sydney, said: "The inclusion of China Watch publication is a really welcome development in the Australian media landscape. It introduces news diversity to Australian media audiences."

China Watch, a multilingual publication of China Daily, reaches more than 50 million readers from political and business circles of mainstream society with the help of the circulation channels of newspapers in various countries.

It is distributed together with the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal in the United States, The Daily Telegraph in Britain, Le Figaro in France, Handelsblatt in Germany, The Nation in Thailand, Jakarta Post in Indonesia, and Uno and El Cronista in Argentina.

China Watch plays an important role in explaining China to the world and ensuring that the country's voice is heard.

Weiwei Xu contributed to the story