Malaysian PM Najib Razak has confirmed that part of the aircraft wing found on Reunion Island is from the missing MH370 plane.
Najib Razak said international experts examining the debris in France had “conclusively confirmed” it was from the aircraft.
The Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 people veered off course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014.
The debris found on Reunion Island was examined at an aeronautical test centre near Toulouse.
It was found on the remote French Indian Ocean island of Reunion a week ago.
In a statement, Najib Razak said the “the burden and uncertainty faced by the families” in the 515 days since the aircraft disappeared had been “unspeakable”.
“We now have physical evidence that flight MH370 tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean,” he added.
French prosecutor Serge Mackowiak later confirmed the wing fragment, known as a flaperon, was from a Boeing 777 – the same make and model as the missing Malaysian airliner.
He said the results of initial tests showed there were “very strong indications” the flaperon was from flight MH370.
Serge Mackowiak said confirmation would come after further tests on the fragment, which would begin on August 6.