diff --git a/hacking/tagger/tag.py b/hacking/tagger/tag.py
index 609755e5e6..f19f2606ab 100755
--- a/hacking/tagger/tag.py
+++ b/hacking/tagger/tag.py
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ ROOT = HERE.parent.parent
 DEFAULT_ANSIBLE_CORE_CHECKOUT = ROOT.parent.joinpath("ansible")
 DEFAULT_REMOTE = "origin"
 DEFAULT_ACTIVE_BRANCHES: tuple[str, ...] = (
+    "stable-2.16",  # Keep in sync with core even though EOL upstream
     "stable-2.18",
     "stable-2.19",
     "stable-2.20",