diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/pull-2350 b/changelog/unreleased/pull-2350
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0068f542f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/pull-2350
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+Enhancement: Add option to configure S3 region
+
+We've added a new option for setting the region when accessing an S3-compatible
+service. For some providers, it is required to set this to a valid value. You
+can do that either by setting the environment variable `AWS_DEFAULT_REGION` or
+using the option `s3.region`, e.g. like this: `-o s3.region="us-east-1"`.
+
+https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/2350
diff --git a/cmd/restic/global.go b/cmd/restic/global.go
index e0d94814b..4001e7720 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/global.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/global.go
@@ -485,6 +485,10 @@ func parseConfig(loc location.Location, opts options.Options) (interface{}, erro
 			cfg.Secret = os.Getenv("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY")
 		}
 
+		if cfg.Region == "" {
+			cfg.Region = os.Getenv("AWS_DEFAULT_REGION")
+		}
+
 		if err := opts.Apply(loc.Scheme, &cfg); err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
diff --git a/doc/030_preparing_a_new_repo.rst b/doc/030_preparing_a_new_repo.rst
index a72b10ffa..bbe729bc1 100644
--- a/doc/030_preparing_a_new_repo.rst
+++ b/doc/030_preparing_a_new_repo.rst
@@ -197,10 +197,11 @@ default location:
     Please note that knowledge of your password is required to access the repository.
     Losing your password means that your data is irrecoverably lost.
 
-It is not possible at the moment to have restic create a new bucket in a
-different location, so you need to create it using a different program.
-Afterwards, the S3 server (``s3.amazonaws.com``) will redirect restic to
-the correct endpoint.
+If needed, you can manually specify the region to use by either setting the
+environment variable ``AWS_DEFAULT_REGION`` or calling restic with an option
+parameter like ``-o s3.region="us-east-1"``. If the region is not specified,
+the default region is used. Afterwards, the S3 server (at least for AWS,
+``s3.amazonaws.com``) will redirect restic to the correct endpoint.
 
 Until version 0.8.0, restic used a default prefix of ``restic``, so the files
 in the bucket were placed in a directory named ``restic``. If you want to
diff --git a/internal/backend/s3/config.go b/internal/backend/s3/config.go
index 932806714..499e05094 100644
--- a/internal/backend/s3/config.go
+++ b/internal/backend/s3/config.go
@@ -20,8 +20,9 @@ type Config struct {
 	Layout        string `option:"layout" help:"use this backend layout (default: auto-detect)"`
 	StorageClass  string `option:"storage-class" help:"set S3 storage class (STANDARD, STANDARD_IA, ONEZONE_IA, INTELLIGENT_TIERING or REDUCED_REDUNDANCY)"`
 
-	Connections uint `option:"connections" help:"set a limit for the number of concurrent connections (default: 5)"`
-	MaxRetries  uint `option:"retries" help:"set the number of retries attempted"`
+	Connections uint   `option:"connections" help:"set a limit for the number of concurrent connections (default: 5)"`
+	MaxRetries  uint   `option:"retries" help:"set the number of retries attempted"`
+	Region      string `option:"region" help:"set region"`
 }
 
 // NewConfig returns a new Config with the default values filled in.
diff --git a/internal/backend/s3/s3.go b/internal/backend/s3/s3.go
index b71ef8ab6..770af02f3 100644
--- a/internal/backend/s3/s3.go
+++ b/internal/backend/s3/s3.go
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ func open(cfg Config, rt http.RoundTripper) (*Backend, error) {
 			},
 		},
 	})
-	client, err := minio.NewWithCredentials(cfg.Endpoint, creds, !cfg.UseHTTP, "")
+	client, err := minio.NewWithCredentials(cfg.Endpoint, creds, !cfg.UseHTTP, cfg.Region)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "minio.NewWithCredentials")
 	}