State of friend from Sunderland? (5)
I believe the answer is:
nepal
'state' is the definition.
(I know that Nepal is a Asian country)
'friend from sunderland?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'friend' could be 'pal' (pal can mean a friend) and 'pal' is located in the answer.
'from' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'n' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nepal that I've seen before include "hilly part of Asia" , "Himalayan country" , "place in the mountains ..." , "Country in plane north-west of India" , "somewhere in Asia" .)