diff --git a/.kokoro/common.sh b/.kokoro/common.sh
index 84e36200685f..cc937e2292d1 100644
--- a/.kokoro/common.sh
+++ b/.kokoro/common.sh
@@ -52,6 +52,20 @@ function retry_with_backoff {
   shift 2
   command=("$@")
 
+  # Add defensive timeouts to Maven commands to prevent Kokoro VM timeouts (10800s hang)
+  local mvn_regex='(^|/)mvnw?$'
+  if [[ "${command[0]:-}" =~ $mvn_regex ]]; then
+    if [[ "${MAVEN_OPTS:-}" != *"-Daether.connector.requestTimeout"* ]]; then
+      local -x MAVEN_OPTS="${MAVEN_OPTS:+"$MAVEN_OPTS "}-Daether.connector.requestTimeout=300000"
+      MAVEN_OPTS+=" -Daether.connector.connectTimeout=30000"
+      MAVEN_OPTS+=" -Dmaven.wagon.rto=300000"
+      MAVEN_OPTS+=" -Dmaven.wagon.connectionTimeout=30000"
+      MAVEN_OPTS+=" -Dmaven.wagon.http.retryHandler.class=standard"
+      MAVEN_OPTS+=" -Dmaven.wagon.http.retryHandler.count=3"
+      MAVEN_OPTS+=" -Dmaven.wagon.httpconnectionManager.ttlSeconds=120"
+    fi
+  fi
+
   # store current flag state
   flags=$-