Instrument from east associated with this country (3)
I believe the answer is:
uke
'instrument' is the definition.
(uke is a kind of instrument)
'east associated with this country' is the wordplay.
'east' becomes 'e' ('E' can be a synonym of 'east').
'associated with' says to put letters next to each other.
'this country' becomes 'uk' (from the perspective of a British newspaper**).
'e' put after 'uk' is 'UKE'.
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for uke that I've seen before include "Music producer" , "Notes producer sometimes plucked" , "George Formby's instrument (abbr)" .)