"Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are both visionary leaders. They are driven towards bringing about positive change," Rathore told PTI on the sidelines of the World Government Summit here.
"If you look at the entire UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is young, energetic and has a vision. This combination is a blessing for both the nations and the region as well," he added.
"Since the world is becoming one global community, we need to learn from various places, modify and apply them in our own country," he said.
Rathore said Dubai is becoming like a knowledge hub and traditionally, the UAE and India have shared great relations going back decades in terms of trade.
"The kind of reception and warmth the prime minister received during his visit to Dubai (last year) has built an extremely positive environment for cooperation in areas such as information technology, national security, oil and non-oil, investment into infrastructure, exchange of knowledge, the smart cities concept that India has etc," said Rathore.
"People of Dubai, the Emiratis, are very adaptive and accommodative towards the world, they are very open and very modern. That's their strength and perhaps the reason why Dubai and the UAE have done well," he said.
On asked about his sporting links with some of the Emiratis, going back to his days as an Olympian, Rathore said he has known them personally and they are "wonderful people".
"They are very energetic, they train very hard, and are great sportsmen as well. Sheikh Ahmed Al-Maktoum was my competitor and he won the gold that time," Rathore said, referring to the 2004 Athens Olympics when he won the silver medal in Double Trap shooting.