diff --git a/rust/qemu-api-macros/meson.build b/rust/qemu-api-macros/meson.build
index 24325dea5c..6f94a4bb3c 100644
--- a/rust/qemu-api-macros/meson.build
+++ b/rust/qemu-api-macros/meson.build
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+subproject('proc-macro2-1-rs', required: true)
+subproject('quote-1-rs', required: true)
+subproject('syn-2-rs', required: true)
+
 quote_dep = dependency('quote-1-rs', native: true)
 syn_dep = dependency('syn-2-rs', native: true)
 proc_macro2_dep = dependency('proc-macro2-1-rs', native: true)