diff --git a/cluster/images/conformance/Dockerfile b/cluster/images/conformance/Dockerfile
index 0d97e1fdd9e..e7785254274 100644
--- a/cluster/images/conformance/Dockerfile
+++ b/cluster/images/conformance/Dockerfile
@@ -13,13 +13,14 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 ARG BASEIMAGE
+ARG RUNNERIMAGE
 
-FROM gcr.io/k8s-staging-build-image/debian-base:v2.1.3 as base
+FROM ${BASEIMAGE} as debbase
 
-FROM ${BASEIMAGE}
+FROM ${RUNNERIMAGE}
 
 # This is a dependency for `kubectl diff` tests
-COPY --from=base /usr/bin/diff /usr/local/bin/
+COPY --from=debbase /usr/bin/diff /usr/local/bin/
 
 COPY cluster /kubernetes/cluster
 COPY ginkgo /usr/local/bin/
diff --git a/cluster/images/conformance/Makefile b/cluster/images/conformance/Makefile
index b08aa1f319d..6a6c1335966 100644
--- a/cluster/images/conformance/Makefile
+++ b/cluster/images/conformance/Makefile
@@ -31,8 +31,15 @@ E2E_GO_RUNNER_BIN?=$(shell test -f $(LOCAL_OUTPUT_PATH)/go-runner && echo $(LOCA
 
 CLUSTER_DIR?=$(shell pwd)/../../../cluster/
 
-BASEIMAGE=gcr.io/distroless/base:latest
-TEMP_DIR:=$(shell mktemp -d -t conformanceXXXXXX)
+ifeq ($(ARCH),amd64)
+    BASEIMAGE?=${KUBE_BASE_IMAGE_REGISTRY}/build-image/debian-base:v2.1.3
+else
+    BASEIMAGE?=${KUBE_BASE_IMAGE_REGISTRY}/build-image/debian-base-${ARCH}:v2.1.3
+endif
+
+RUNNERIMAGE?=gcr.io/distroless/static:latest
+
+TEMP_DIR:=$(shell mktemp -d -t conformance-XXXXXX)
 
 all: build
 
@@ -60,6 +67,7 @@ endif
 		--pull \
 		-t ${REGISTRY}/conformance-${ARCH}:${VERSION} \
 		--build-arg BASEIMAGE=$(BASEIMAGE) \
+		--build-arg RUNNERIMAGE=$(RUNNERIMAGE) \
 		${TEMP_DIR}
 	rm -rf "${TEMP_DIR}"