diff --git a/makefile b/makefile
index ea51d66f73..653e906650 100755
--- a/makefile
+++ b/makefile
@@ -243,6 +243,12 @@ ifneq ($(android),)
 	ifeq ($(platform),macosx)
 	    android-cflags += -Doff64_t=off_t -Dlseek64=lseek
 	endif
+	# on Windows (in MinGW-based build) there are neither __BEGIN_DECLS nor __END_DECLS
+	# defines; we don't want to patch every file that uses them, so we stub them in
+	# using CFLAGS mechanism
+	ifeq ($(platform),windows)
+		android-cflags += "-D__BEGIN_DECLS=extern \"C\" {" "-D__END_DECLS=}"
+	endif
 
 	luni-cpps := $(shell find $(luni-native) -name '*.cpp')