Albania'sParliament elected the leader of the country's military forces to the position of president on Saturday.

With his election, Bajram Begaj relinquishes his position as chief of staff of the armed forces.

Although Parliament has the majority of political power in Albania, President Begaj will have the authority to choose three of the country's constitutional court's nine members.

While he resigned from his military job just before parliament elected him to the presidency, he now becomes commander-in-chief of the armed forces in his new role.

Begaj was nominated for President by socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama, and he was elected in the fourth round of voting by 78 of the Parliament's 140 members.

When his predecessor, the outspoken opponent of the administration Ilir Meta, stands down on July 24, he will begin his five-year term.

He studied medicine before joining the army and held a variety of positions until being named to the top military position in July 2020.

Albania has been a member of NATO since 2009 and is currently seeking membership in the European Union.

This comes at a time when the United States announced early this year establishing an Advance Operations Command for the United States Special Operations Command in Europe (SOCEUR), according to a statement by the command. 

A statement explained that the US Special Forces' position is to increase "military coordination" with Balkan allies, such as Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia, North Macedonia, and Serbia, adding that it has a role to counter the "extension of Russian influence." 

In 2018, Albanian Foreign Minister Olta Xhaçka expressed Albania's desire for the United States to establish a US military base on its territory to counter what he called "Russia's influence".