diff --git a/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Microsoft.Android.Sdk/targets/Microsoft.Android.Sdk.DefaultProperties.targets b/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Microsoft.Android.Sdk/targets/Microsoft.Android.Sdk.DefaultProperties.targets
index 0221899748f..30b60346118 100644
--- a/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Microsoft.Android.Sdk/targets/Microsoft.Android.Sdk.DefaultProperties.targets
+++ b/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Microsoft.Android.Sdk/targets/Microsoft.Android.Sdk.DefaultProperties.targets
@@ -69,6 +69,11 @@
     <UseCurrentRuntimeIdentifier>false</UseCurrentRuntimeIdentifier>
     <PublishTrimmed Condition=" '$(PublishTrimmed)' == '' and ('$(AndroidLinkMode)' == 'SdkOnly' or '$(AndroidLinkMode)' == 'Full') ">true</PublishTrimmed>
     <PublishTrimmed Condition=" '$(PublishTrimmed)' == '' and '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' and '$(AndroidLinkMode)' != 'None' ">true</PublishTrimmed>
+    <!--
+      This prevents an early error message during 'dotnet publish'.
+      We handle $(SelfContained) in a custom way where it is forced to be true.
+    -->
+    <PublishSelfContained Condition=" '$(PublishSelfContained)' == '' ">false</PublishSelfContained>
     <AndroidLinkMode Condition=" '$(AndroidLinkMode)' == '' and '$(PublishTrimmed)' == 'true' ">SdkOnly</AndroidLinkMode>
     <AndroidLinkMode Condition=" '$(AndroidLinkMode)' == '' ">None</AndroidLinkMode>
     <!-- For compat with user code not marked trimmable, only trim opt-in by default. -->
diff --git a/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tests/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tests/XASdkTests.cs b/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tests/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tests/XASdkTests.cs
index 0839f12ed61..9dcfadae635 100644
--- a/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tests/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tests/XASdkTests.cs
+++ b/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tests/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tests/XASdkTests.cs
@@ -874,6 +874,18 @@ static bool IsPreviewFrameworkVersion (string targetFramework)
 				&& XABuildConfig.AndroidLatestUnstableApiLevel != XABuildConfig.AndroidLatestStableApiLevel);
 		}
 
+		[Test]
+		public void DotNetPublishDefaultValues([Values (false, true)] bool isRelease)
+		{
+			var proj = new XamarinAndroidApplicationProject {
+				IsRelease = isRelease
+			};
+			var builder = CreateDllBuilder ();
+			builder.Save (proj);
+			var dotnet = new DotNetCLI (Path.Combine (Root, builder.ProjectDirectory, proj.ProjectFilePath));
+			Assert.IsTrue (dotnet.Publish (), "`dotnet publish` should succeed");
+		}
+
 		[Test]
 		public void DotNetPublish ([Values (false, true)] bool isRelease, [ValueSource(nameof(DotNetTargetFrameworks))] object[] data)
 		{