One is contracted in an Asian republic, a group of islands (9)
I believe the answer is:
indonesia
'a group of islands' is the definition.
'Indonesia' can be an answer for 'islands' (island nation). I'm not certain of the 'a group of' bit.
'one is contracted in an asian republic' is the wordplay.
'one is contracted' becomes 'ones' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'an asian republic' becomes 'india' (I've seen this before).
'ones' going into 'india' is 'INDONESIA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for indonesia that I've seen before include "SE Asian country" , "An ionised country of South East Asia" , "State" , "I said none (anag) - country" , "somewhere in Asia" .)