diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/pull-4226 b/changelog/unreleased/pull-4226
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4b5be4655
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/pull-4226
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+Enhancement: Allow to specify region where a bucket should get created in the gcs backend
+
+Buckets used by the Google Cloud Storage backend would always get created in the "us" region.
+It is now possible to specify the region, where a bucket should get created.
+
+https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/4226
diff --git a/doc/030_preparing_a_new_repo.rst b/doc/030_preparing_a_new_repo.rst
index 44223c146..a871ee507 100644
--- a/doc/030_preparing_a_new_repo.rst
+++ b/doc/030_preparing_a_new_repo.rst
@@ -613,6 +613,8 @@ The number of concurrent connections to the GCS service can be set with the
 ``-o gs.connections=10`` switch. By default, at most five parallel connections are
 established.
 
+The region, where a bucket should be created, can be specified with the ``-o gs.region=us`` switch. By default, the region is set to ``us``.
+
 .. _service account: https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/service-account-overview
 .. _create a service account key: https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/keys-create-delete
 .. _default authentication material: https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication#service-accounts
diff --git a/internal/backend/gs/config.go b/internal/backend/gs/config.go
index 33aec4c99..8bb2bddea 100644
--- a/internal/backend/gs/config.go
+++ b/internal/backend/gs/config.go
@@ -16,13 +16,15 @@ type Config struct {
 	Bucket    string
 	Prefix    string
 
-	Connections uint `option:"connections" help:"set a limit for the number of concurrent connections (default: 5)"`
+	Connections uint   `option:"connections" help:"set a limit for the number of concurrent connections (default: 5)"`
+	Region      string `option:"region" help:"region to create the bucket in (default: us)"`
 }
 
 // NewConfig returns a new Config with the default values filled in.
 func NewConfig() Config {
 	return Config{
 		Connections: 5,
+		Region:      "us",
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/backend/gs/config_test.go b/internal/backend/gs/config_test.go
index fb03e3a20..fb2774d25 100644
--- a/internal/backend/gs/config_test.go
+++ b/internal/backend/gs/config_test.go
@@ -10,16 +10,19 @@ var configTests = []struct {
 		Bucket:      "bucketname",
 		Prefix:      "",
 		Connections: 5,
+		Region:      "us",
 	}},
 	{"gs:bucketname:/prefix/directory", Config{
 		Bucket:      "bucketname",
 		Prefix:      "prefix/directory",
 		Connections: 5,
+		Region:      "us",
 	}},
 	{"gs:bucketname:/prefix/directory/", Config{
 		Bucket:      "bucketname",
 		Prefix:      "prefix/directory",
 		Connections: 5,
+		Region:      "us",
 	}},
 }
 
diff --git a/internal/backend/gs/gs.go b/internal/backend/gs/gs.go
index 62e5c4954..7b5489111 100644
--- a/internal/backend/gs/gs.go
+++ b/internal/backend/gs/gs.go
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ type Backend struct {
 	projectID    string
 	connections  uint
 	bucketName   string
+	region       string
 	bucket       *storage.BucketHandle
 	prefix       string
 	listMaxItems int
@@ -102,6 +103,7 @@ func open(cfg Config, rt http.RoundTripper) (*Backend, error) {
 		projectID:   cfg.ProjectID,
 		connections: cfg.Connections,
 		bucketName:  cfg.Bucket,
+		region:      cfg.Region,
 		bucket:      gcsClient.Bucket(cfg.Bucket),
 		prefix:      cfg.Prefix,
 		Layout: &layout.DefaultLayout{
@@ -142,8 +144,11 @@ func Create(ctx context.Context, cfg Config, rt http.RoundTripper) (restic.Backe
 	}
 
 	if !exists {
+		bucketAttrs := &storage.BucketAttrs{
+			Location: cfg.Region,
+		}
 		// Bucket doesn't exist, try to create it.
-		if err := be.bucket.Create(ctx, be.projectID, nil); err != nil {
+		if err := be.bucket.Create(ctx, be.projectID, bucketAttrs); err != nil {
 			// Always an error, as the bucket definitely doesn't exist.
 			return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "service.Buckets.Insert")
 		}