Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada will suspend all its activities led at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) after a Canadian official resigned from the mentioned bank.

Bob Pickard announced yesterday in a tweet on the social networking site "Twitter" that he resigned from the position of Global Communications Head at the bank because this institution is "dominated" by members of the Chinese Communist Party.

Freeland told reporters yesterday that the Canadian government will immediately end all activities it manages at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and has asked the Ministry of Finance to conduct an immediate review regarding the raised allegations and Canada’s involvement in the bank.

The Finance Minister also confirmed that the review will be conducted "quickly" and indicated that she does not rule out any outcome in the end.

The bank rejects the claims of the resigned Canadian official:

For its part, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank issued a statement in which it described Bob Pickard’s claims as "categorically false."

"We are a multilateral development bank that is independent and led by our Board of Governors and Board of Directors, and no country or political party has a say regarding the strategic or operational management of the bank," the bank added in its statement.

China had established the mentioned bank in late 2015 with a capital of 100 billion US dollars to allow other countries in the region access to capital to invest in projects in various fields such as transportation, electricity, and communications.

Canada joined the bank in 2017, owning less than 1% of the voting rights, unlike China, which has more than a quarter of the voting rights.

Also, according to the website of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the bank had 103 members from inside and outside the region by the end of 2020. Among the members are many Western countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.