diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/apis/cri/runtime/v1alpha2/api.pb.go b/pkg/kubelet/apis/cri/runtime/v1alpha2/api.pb.go
index 00023b7a07b2..f627e948a2a9 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/apis/cri/runtime/v1alpha2/api.pb.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/apis/cri/runtime/v1alpha2/api.pb.go
@@ -3052,7 +3052,8 @@ func (*RemoveImageResponse) ProtoMessage()               {}
 func (*RemoveImageResponse) Descriptor() ([]byte, []int) { return fileDescriptorApi, []int{76} }
 
 type NetworkConfig struct {
-	// CIDR to use for pod IP addresses.
+	// CIDR to use for pod IP addresses. If the CIDR is empty, runtimes
+	// should omit it.
 	PodCidr string `protobuf:"bytes,1,opt,name=pod_cidr,json=podCidr,proto3" json:"pod_cidr,omitempty"`
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/apis/cri/runtime/v1alpha2/api.proto b/pkg/kubelet/apis/cri/runtime/v1alpha2/api.proto
index eaf4397e6ce1..854b8f612829 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/apis/cri/runtime/v1alpha2/api.proto
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/apis/cri/runtime/v1alpha2/api.proto
@@ -1047,7 +1047,8 @@ message RemoveImageRequest {
 message RemoveImageResponse {}
 
 message NetworkConfig {
-    // CIDR to use for pod IP addresses.
+    // CIDR to use for pod IP addresses. If the CIDR is empty, runtimes
+    // should omit it.
     string pod_cidr = 1;
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet_node_status.go b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet_node_status.go
index cf324805fdcd..9a1e6214b6a3 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet_node_status.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet_node_status.go
@@ -384,7 +384,9 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) tryUpdateNodeStatus(tryNumber int) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("nil %q node object", kl.nodeName)
 	}
 
-	kl.updatePodCIDR(node.Spec.PodCIDR)
+	if node.Spec.PodCIDR != "" {
+		kl.updatePodCIDR(node.Spec.PodCIDR)
+	}
 
 	kl.setNodeStatus(node)
 	// Patch the current status on the API server