page_title: Olta Xhaçka
section_title: Minister of Defense
hierarchical_section_title: Olta Xhaçka / Education and career / Minister of Defense
caption_attribution_description: Defense Secretary James N. Mattis meets with Albanian Minister of Defence Olta Xhaçka at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (180417-D-SV709-0065)
context_page_description: Olta Xhaçka is an Albanian politician, Socialist Party member of Parliament, and current Albanian minister of defence.
context_section_description: She was re-elected to parliament in June 2017, this time in Tirana. Her district had the greatest increase in votes for the Socialist Party since the 2013 parliamentary elections of any in Tirana.
  In September 2017 she took the office of the Minister of Defence in the 2nd Rama Government, making her the second woman to be appointed to that office after Mimi Kodheli.
  In April 2018 she met U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis at the Pentagon where Mattis reaffirmed "the strong defense relationship between the United States and Albania."
caption: Xhaçka with James Mattis.
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