PARIS, May 4, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - France has for the first time been invited to commemorate the battle of Dien Bien Phu, which led to French troops' defeat in Vietnam and marked the country's last stand in colonial Indochina, Paris said Friday.

Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu will represent France at commemorations marking the 70th anniversary of the battle next week.

"For the first time in history, the Vietnamese have invited France to this commemoration, a sign of their desire to build a relationship for the future," the French defence ministry said on Friday.

"There is a shared desire to look at the history of the Indochina War in a lucid and open manner," the ministry said.

Dien Bien Phu in northern Vietnam was the site of an epic battle against Vietnamese communist forces in 1954 that spelt the end of France's colonial empire in Indochina.

The humiliating fall of the French troops in the Dien Bien Phu valley dented Paris's prestige and fuelled independence movements in other colonies.

Vietnamese fighters hemmed in French forces -- equipped with superior weapons -- and bombarded them with heavy artillery.

The ferocious battle in the rugged, remote valley killed thousands of soldiers on both sides in under two months.

Lecornu, who is set to travel to Vietnam on Saturday, will pay tribute "to the Vietnamese dead at a Vietnamese military cemetery" on Tuesday, the defence ministry said.

He will also honour the memory of French soldiers at the French memorial at Dien Bien Phu.

On Monday, Lecornu is set to meet with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Defence Minister Phan Van Giang.

The defence ministry said in March that France was to repatriate from Vietnam the bodies of six soldiers who died in Dien Bien Phu.

France is keen to boost cooperation with Hanoi against a backdrop of tensions with China in the Asia-Pacific region.

Vietnam's victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu led to the country's division into the communist-ruled north, headed by revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, and a pro-US southern regime.

That set the stage for two decades of war, which eventually ended with the US defeat in the Vietnam War in 1975 and unification.

What was once called French Indochina has today become Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.