diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 42864fa7..0362b224 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,24 @@
 
 All notable changes to this project are documented in this file.
 
+## 1.6.1
+
+**Release date:** 2025-07-08
+
+This patch release fixes a bug introduced in v1.6.0
+that causes SOPS decryption with US Government KMS
+keys to fail with the error:
+
+```
+STS: AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity, https response error\n   StatusCode: 0, RequestID: ,
+request send failed, Post\n \"https://sts.arn.amazonaws.com/\": dial tcp:
+lookupts.arn.amazonaws.com on 10.100.0.10:53: no such host
+```
+
+Fixes:
+- Fix regression in STS endpoint for SOPS decryption with AWS KMS in US Gov partition
+  [#1478](https://github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller/pull/1478)
+
 ## 1.6.0
 
 **Release date:** 2025-05-28
diff --git a/config/manager/kustomization.yaml b/config/manager/kustomization.yaml
index 0295a87d..77055897 100644
--- a/config/manager/kustomization.yaml
+++ b/config/manager/kustomization.yaml
@@ -5,4 +5,4 @@ resources:
 images:
   - name: fluxcd/kustomize-controller
     newName: fluxcd/kustomize-controller
-    newTag: v1.6.0
+    newTag: v1.6.1
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index c50caa01..ffee1cf6 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/cyphar/filepath-securejoin v0.4.1
 	github.com/dimchansky/utfbom v1.1.1
 	github.com/fluxcd/cli-utils v0.36.0-flux.13
-	github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller/api v1.6.0
+	github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller/api v1.6.1
 	github.com/fluxcd/pkg/apis/acl v0.7.0
 	github.com/fluxcd/pkg/apis/event v0.17.0
 	github.com/fluxcd/pkg/apis/kustomize v1.10.0