diff --git a/girepository/meson.build b/girepository/meson.build
index 3292f6672..0f8d53010 100644
--- a/girepository/meson.build
+++ b/girepository/meson.build
@@ -207,6 +207,13 @@ libgirepository_dep = declare_dependency(
   dependencies: [libglib_dep, libgobject_dep, libgio_dep, libgmodule_dep],
   sources: [gi_visibility_h],
   include_directories: [girepoinc],
+  variables: {
+    # Export the path for the built GLib-2.0.typelib (etc.) for when GLib is
+    # used as a subproject. The variable names match those in
+    # pkgconfig_variables below.
+    'girdir': meson.current_build_dir() / 'introspection',
+    'typelibdir': meson.current_build_dir() / 'introspection',
+  },
 )
 
 executable('gi-dump-types',