Vanuatu is set to introduce machine-readable passports from August to replace its hand-written ones.
This comes as the international civil aviation organisation has set out rules that require all countries to have machine-readable passports by next month.
New Zealand's High Commissioner to Vanuatu, Jeff Langley, says New Zealand is helping Vanuatu produce modern passports.
"Vanuatu won't be producing its new passport by April, so it's not going to meet the deadline, we hope that the new passports will start to be issued by about August. Now the deadline doesn't in any way mean that everybody has to have a new passport on a certain day. But it does mean that that was the target set up by which all new passports issued should be meeting the new standard."
Jeff Langley
The two countries are currently holding their annual security talks in Port Vila.
