diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Build/2026-07-11-07-26-16.gh-issue-126877.Zt7Kq2.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Build/2026-07-11-07-26-16.gh-issue-126877.Zt7Kq2.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000000..1d7d4fad886c56f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Build/2026-07-11-07-26-16.gh-issue-126877.Zt7Kq2.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix the :program:`configure` check for Tcl/Tk which could wrongly succeed
+with optimizing compilers when the libraries are missing.
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 90f026976d0e54c..08a7c663ce0a9c2 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -17800,8 +17800,8 @@ int
 main (void)
 {
 
-      void *x1 = Tcl_Init;
-      void *x2 = Tk_Init;
+      Tcl_Init(NULL);
+      Tk_Init(NULL);
 
   ;
   return 0;
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index bdb94d6d2803383..ead82d6da0b5450 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -4643,8 +4643,8 @@ WITH_SAVE_ENV([
       #  error "Tk older than 8.5.12 not supported"
       #endif
     ], [
-      void *x1 = Tcl_Init;
-      void *x2 = Tk_Init;
+      Tcl_Init(NULL);
+      Tk_Init(NULL);
     ])
   ], [
     have_tcltk=yes