ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan's newly appointed armed forces chief asked Afghanistan's Taliban government this week to choose between sustaining ties with Islamabad or supporting the Pakistani Taliban.

The Pakistani Taliban militant group has been blamed for a surge in deadly attacks in recent years.

Field Marshal Asim Munir made these remarks at his headquarters in Rawalpindi, where he received a guard of honor from all three branches of the military, marking the launch of Pakistan's new joint military command.

His appointment was confirmed last week, officials said, to improve coordination among the army, navy, and air force amid shifting regional security dynamics.

Munir said that the new Defence Forces Headquarters marks a historic step, creating a unified tri-services command to boost coordination across land, air, sea, cybersecurity, and information domains amid rising security threats, according to a military statement.

Munir told officers that the Taliban government had been sent a "clear message" in Kabul: it must decide between Pakistan and "Fitna al-Khawarij," a term authorities use for the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.

Kabul offered no immediate comment.

Since October, relations between the two neighbors have gone downhill. There have been several days of border clashes that killed dozens of soldiers, civilians, and suspected militants, and wounded hundreds more.

The violence followed explosions on October 9 in Kabul that Taliban authorities blamed on Pakistan. A Qatar-mediated ceasefire has primarily held since October, though they failed to reach an agreement in November despite holding three rounds of talks in Istanbul.