diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 36d0999c15..ce00b8a442 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -2073,6 +2073,22 @@ if test "x$enable_vector_icons" = "xyes"; then
     fi
   fi
 fi
+
+if test "x$enable_vector_icons" = "xyes"; then
+  AX_PROG_CC_FOR_BUILD
+
+  # We must not use $PKG_CONFIG nor PKG_CHECK_* macros because we need
+  # to make sure we use the native pkg-config (in case we cross-compile).
+  if pkg-config --atleast-version=glib_required_version glib-2.0 &&
+     pkg-config gio-2.0; then
+    NATIVE_GLIB_LIBS=`pkg-config --libs gio-2.0 glib-2.0`
+    NATIVE_GLIB_CFLAGS=`pkg-config --cflags gio-2.0 glib-2.0`
+  else
+    enable_vector_icons="no (missing native glib > glib_required_version or gio)"
+  fi
+fi
+AC_SUBST(NATIVE_GLIB_LIBS)
+AC_SUBST(NATIVE_GLIB_CFLAGS)
 AM_CONDITIONAL(ENABLE_VECTOR_ICONS, test "x$enable_vector_icons" = "xyes")
 
 if test "x$enable_vector_icons" = "xyes"; then
diff --git a/icons/Symbolic-Inverted/Makefile.am b/icons/Symbolic-Inverted/Makefile.am
index a44397bb36..6fd7a9c917 100644
--- a/icons/Symbolic-Inverted/Makefile.am
+++ b/icons/Symbolic-Inverted/Makefile.am
@@ -32,13 +32,13 @@ scalable/gimp-color-picker-white.svg: $(top_builddir)/icons/Symbolic/scalable/gi
 	mkdir -p scalable && $(top_builddir)/tools/invert-svg $< $@
 
 # Rule for all other scalable icons.
-scalable/%.svg: ../Symbolic/scalable/%.svg ../../tools/invert-svg
+scalable/%.svg: ../Symbolic/scalable/%.svg $(top_builddir)/tools/invert-svg$(BUILD_EXEEXT)
 	mkdir -p scalable && \
-	$(top_builddir)/tools/invert-svg $< $@
+	$(top_builddir)/tools/invert-svg$(BUILD_EXEEXT) $< $@
 
-24/%.svg: ../Symbolic/24/%.svg ../../tools/invert-svg
+24/%.svg: $(top_srcdir)/icons/Symbolic/24/%.svg $(top_builddir)/tools/invert-svg$(BUILD_EXEEXT)
 	mkdir -p scalable && \
-	$(top_builddir)/tools/invert-svg $< $@
+	$(top_builddir)/tools/invert-svg$(BUILD_EXEEXT) $< $@
 
 # We are basically repeating the same rule for every subdirectory, which
 # is very dirty. But this is the only way we found to have a rule
diff --git a/tools/Makefile.am b/tools/Makefile.am
index 4de2be2e13..4505e4bdfd 100644
--- a/tools/Makefile.am
+++ b/tools/Makefile.am
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 libgimpbase = $(top_builddir)/libgimpbase/libgimpbase-$(GIMP_API_VERSION).la
 
 if ENABLE_VECTOR_ICONS
-svg_icon_tools = invert-svg compute-svg-viewbox
+svg_icon_tools = compute-svg-viewbox
 else
 svg_icon_tools =
 endif
@@ -50,11 +50,8 @@ test_clipboard_LDADD = \
 	$(GTK_LIBS)
 
 if ENABLE_VECTOR_ICONS
-invert_svg_SOURCES = invert-svg.c
-
-invert_svg_LDADD = \
-	$(GLIB_LIBS)	\
-	$(GIO_LIBS)
+invert-svg$(BUILD_EXEEXT): invert-svg.c
+	$(CC_FOR_BUILD) -o $@ $< $(NATIVE_GLIB_LIBS) $(NATIVE_GLIB_CFLAGS)
 
 compute_svg_viewbox_SOURCES = compute-svg-viewbox.c
 
@@ -63,6 +60,8 @@ compute_svg_viewbox_CFLAGS = \
 
 compute_svg_viewbox_LDADD = \
 	$(SVG_LIBS)
+
+all: invert-svg$(BUILD_EXEEXT)
 endif
 
 AM_CPPFLAGS = \