diff --git a/libvirt/tests/cfg/numa/guest_numa_topology/numa_topology_with_numa_distance.cfg b/libvirt/tests/cfg/numa/guest_numa_topology/numa_topology_with_numa_distance.cfg
index 10db27ade1..27928c6b21 100644
--- a/libvirt/tests/cfg/numa/guest_numa_topology/numa_topology_with_numa_distance.cfg
+++ b/libvirt/tests/cfg/numa/guest_numa_topology/numa_topology_with_numa_distance.cfg
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
     start_vm = "no"
     vcpu = 10
     cpu_mode = 'host-model'
+    aarch64:
+        cpu_mode = 'host-passthrough'
     numa_cell_0_distance = {'sibling': [{'id': '0', 'value': '10'}, {'id': '1', 'value': '21'}]}
     numa_cell_0 = {'unit': 'KiB', 'id': '0', 'memory': '1048576', 'distances': ${numa_cell_0_distance}, 'cpus': '0-1,4-9'}
     variants: