diff --git a/Applications/CLI/CMakeLists.txt b/Applications/CLI/CMakeLists.txt
index 4011756c46e77bb88e6b7f88916ddd0297d27bef..06eceb456d8915de28ff90d74b805f0343bec66b 100644
--- a/Applications/CLI/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/Applications/CLI/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ endif()
 if(OGS_USE_PETSC)
     target_link_libraries(ogs PRIVATE ${PETSC_LIBRARIES})
 endif()
-if(OGS_USE_MPI)
+if(OGS_USE_MPI AND TARGET MPI::MPI_CXX)
     target_link_libraries(ogs PRIVATE MPI::MPI_CXX)
 endif()