diff --git a/news/3378.bugfix.md b/news/3378.bugfix.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5ac145defb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/3378.bugfix.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Don't set "dependencies" as empty list for uv toml if there is no dependencies in the raw toml file.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/pdm/formats/uv.py b/src/pdm/formats/uv.py
index 43fca3084f..64881b89cd 100644
--- a/src/pdm/formats/uv.py
+++ b/src/pdm/formats/uv.py
@@ -48,7 +48,6 @@ def build_pyproject_toml(self) -> Path:
             )
 
         data.setdefault("project", {})["requires-python"] = self.requires_python
-        data.setdefault("project", {})["dependencies"] = []
         data.pop("dependency-groups", None)
         data.setdefault("project", {}).pop("optional-dependencies", None)
         sources = {}