diff --git a/src/azure-cli/setup.py b/src/azure-cli/setup.py
index 88e6864b25b..b84e3de37cf 100644
--- a/src/azure-cli/setup.py
+++ b/src/azure-cli/setup.py
@@ -144,6 +144,7 @@
     'PyNaCl~=1.5.0',
     'scp~=0.13.2',
     'semver==2.13.0',
+    'setuptools',
     'six>=1.10.0',  # six is still used by countless extensions
     'sshtunnel~=0.1.4',
     # Even though knack already depends on tabulate, profile module directly uses it for interactive subscription