"We have responded positively to a request from the government of Malaysia," Deputy Prime Minister Xavier-Luc Duval told reporters today. "Every effort will be undertaken to locate any debris."
Coastguard ships were deployed Monday in the search, while appeals were made to private boats and fishermen to inform police if they sighted any possible wreckage, Duval added.
In one of the most baffling mysteries in aviation history, MH370 inexplicably veered off course in March 2014 and disappeared from radars, sparking a colossal hunt that has until now proved fruitless.
Last week a wing part washed up on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, and has been taken to France to for physical and chemical analysis.
Aready confirmed to be part of a Boeing 777, it is virtually certain to have come from the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight, as no other such plane is known to have crashed in the area.