diff --git a/core/setup.py b/core/setup.py
index 5cc4a9c8141b..f697e385494b 100644
--- a/core/setup.py
+++ b/core/setup.py
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@
     'protobuf >= 3.0.0',
     'google-auth >= 0.4.0, < 2.0.0dev',
     'requests >= 2.4.0, < 3.0.0dev',
+    'setuptools >= 34.0.0',
     'six',
     'tenacity >= 4.0.0, <5.0.0dev'
 ]