diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 5dd105f0976..2a530654708 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -834,8 +834,12 @@ substs.set('NTP_SERVERS', ntp_servers)
 
 default_locale = get_option('default-locale')
 if default_locale == ''
-        choose_default_locale_sh = find_program('tools/choose-default-locale.sh')
-        default_locale = run_command(choose_default_locale_sh).stdout().strip()
+        if not meson.is_cross_build()
+                choose_default_locale_sh = find_program('tools/choose-default-locale.sh')
+                default_locale = run_command(choose_default_locale_sh).stdout().strip()
+        else
+                default_locale = 'C.UTF-8'
+        endif
 endif
 conf.set_quoted('SYSTEMD_DEFAULT_LOCALE', default_locale)