diff --git a/profiles/base/package.use.force b/profiles/base/package.use.force
index e268e4fb037c1..12f9a7329ef17 100644
--- a/profiles/base/package.use.force
+++ b/profiles/base/package.use.force
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 # This is largely a QA smoketesting flag, and as such, should
 # not be enabled by users.
 dev-util/pkgconf native-symlinks
+virtual/pkgconfig native-symlinks
 
 # Ionen Wolkens <ionen@gentoo.org> (2024-02-17)
 # Currently fails to build with gcc, and either way the current upstream
diff --git a/virtual/pkgconfig/metadata.xml b/virtual/pkgconfig/metadata.xml
index 8b2bd471ec246..db59825d10598 100644
--- a/virtual/pkgconfig/metadata.xml
+++ b/virtual/pkgconfig/metadata.xml
@@ -13,4 +13,11 @@
 		<name>Embedded Gentoo</name>
 	</maintainer>
 	<stabilize-allarches/>
+	<use>
+		<flag name="native-symlinks">
+			Install generic symlinks like pkgconf and pkg-config.
+			If this flag is disabled, only CHOST-prefixed pkg-config
+			executables will be available to end users and ebuilds.
+		</flag>
+	</use>
 </pkgmetadata>
diff --git a/virtual/pkgconfig/pkgconfig-3.ebuild b/virtual/pkgconfig/pkgconfig-3.ebuild
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..d1ca92789acf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/virtual/pkgconfig/pkgconfig-3.ebuild
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# Copyright 1999-2024 Gentoo Authors
+# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
+
+EAPI=8
+
+DESCRIPTION="Virtual for the pkg-config implementation"
+SLOT="0"
+KEYWORDS="~alpha amd64 arm arm64 hppa ~ia64 ~loong ~m68k ~mips ppc ppc64 ~riscv ~s390 sparc x86 ~amd64-linux ~x86-linux ~arm64-macos ~ppc-macos ~x64-macos ~x64-solaris"
+IUSE="+native-symlinks"
+
+RDEPEND="dev-util/pkgconf[native-symlinks(+)=]"