diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/sysreg.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/sysreg.h
index ebc622432831..c4ac0ac25a00 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/sysreg.h
+++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/sysreg.h
@@ -49,7 +49,9 @@
 #ifndef CONFIG_BROKEN_GAS_INST
 
 #ifdef __ASSEMBLY__
-#define __emit_inst(x)			.inst (x)
+// The space separator is omitted so that __emit_inst(x) can be parsed as
+// either an assembler directive or an assembler macro argument.
+#define __emit_inst(x)			.inst(x)
 #else
 #define __emit_inst(x)			".inst " __stringify((x)) "\n\t"
 #endif