The agreement on cooperation and interaction between Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate does not require ratification, director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies under the president of Ukraine, adviser to the president of Ukraine Rostyslav Pavlenko has said.

"I think that it [the document] will be made public. It is, in fact, a framework agreement that defines the basis of the relationship, because the state is separated from the church, and the church from the state. It is about assistance in creating a church ... The document does not require ratification," Pavlenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday.

He also stressed that the agreement signed by President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, "in no way contradicts the laws of Ukraine."

The adviser to the president noted that the Ukrainian law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" obliges the state to assist religious organizations in the realization of their legitimate interests. "In particular, this is referred to in the agreement," he said.

As reported, Poroshenko and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew signed the agreement on cooperation and interaction between Ukraine and the Patriarchate of Constantinople following the meeting in Istanbul on November 3.