diff --git a/src/backend/commands/indexcmds.c b/src/backend/commands/indexcmds.c
index f8ee4b0a84b..f2da75d9b9c 100644
--- a/src/backend/commands/indexcmds.c
+++ b/src/backend/commands/indexcmds.c
@@ -921,6 +921,14 @@ DefineIndex(Oid relationId,
 				int			maplen;
 
 				childrel = heap_open(childRelid, lockmode);
+
+				/* don't try to create indexes on foreign tables, though */
+				if (childrel->rd_rel->relkind == RELKIND_FOREIGN_TABLE)
+				{
+					heap_close(childrel, lockmode);
+					continue;
+				}
+
 				childidxs = RelationGetIndexList(childrel);
 				attmap =
 					convert_tuples_by_name_map(RelationGetDescr(childrel),
diff --git a/src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c b/src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c
index 23c2e923757..eb34914f5ec 100644
--- a/src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c
+++ b/src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c
@@ -14934,6 +14934,10 @@ AttachPartitionEnsureIndexes(Relation rel, Relation attachrel)
 	MemoryContext cxt;
 	MemoryContext oldcxt;
 
+	/* don't try to create indexes on foreign tables */
+	if (attachrel->rd_rel->relkind == RELKIND_FOREIGN_TABLE)
+		return;
+
 	cxt = AllocSetContextCreate(CurrentMemoryContext,
 								"AttachPartitionEnsureIndexes",
 								ALLOCSET_DEFAULT_SIZES);